Cities and Natural Disaster

Most cities are vulnerable to at least one type of natural disaster:

• Of the 1,146 cities with at least 500,000 inhabitants in 2018, 679 (59 per cent) were at high risk of exposure to at least one of six types of natural disaster:

1. Cyclones
2. Floods
3. Droughts
4. Earthquakes
5. Landslides
6. Volcanic eruptions

• Taken together, cities of 500,000 inhabitants or more facing high risk of exposure to at least one type of natural disaster were home to 1.4 billion people in 2018.
• One hundred and eighty-nine cities—most located along coastlines—were at high risk of exposure to two or more types of natural disaster; 26 cities—including megacities Manila, Osaka and Tokyo—faced a high risk of exposure to three or more types of disaster.