On March 14, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) announced that “for the first time in history the world has experienced three consecutive years where annual economic losses have exceeded $100 billion due to an enormous increase in exposure of industrial assets and private property to extreme disaster events.” A UNISDR press release quotes UNISDR Director Elizabeth Longworth as saying: “A review of economic losses caused by major disaster events since 1980 shows that since the mid-1990s there has been a rise in economic losses and this has turned into an upward trend as confirmed by the losses from last year when, despite no mega-disaster such as a major urban earthquake, economic losses are conservatively estimated in the region of $138 billion.”

A breakdown of the impact during 2012 shows 310 disasters that resulted in 9,300 deaths, and impacted 106 million people. The year was marked by no mega-disaster in terms of human impact. “The deadliest event was Typhoon Bopha which hit the Philippines in December leaving over 1,900 dead and missing. Asia, once more showed itself to be the most disaster-prone part of the world both in terms of the number of disasters and the number of victims.”

In contrast, “63% of the economic losses were in the Americas, mainly due to Hurricane Sandy ($50 billion) and the [overall] drought ($20 billion). Europe was hit by two long cold waves at the beginning and the end of the year [2012] killing almost 1,000 people, and Africa was severely affected by drought but also by floods such as those in Nigeria which took over 300 lives.”

Professor Debby Gua-Sapir, director of the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the University of Louvain in Belgium, commented on the figures in the UNISDR press release. She said, “Globally, most victims this year were from floods and droughts which were responsible for nearly 80% of all victims. But as they occur in poorer countries, the economic losses are low. Even so, the floods of Pakistan cost nearly 2% of its annual GDP which is a lot to recover. Disasters are a major problem in all poor countries and threats to global security. They should be taken seriously.”