Description: Comparing the size of exposed populations with the number of recorded deaths to earthquake hazard is used as a measure of relative vulnerability. Those states closest to the top left-hand corner of the graph show highest relative vulnerability. The graph represents relative earthquake vulnerability between 1980 and 2000 only. Armenia stands out as being particularly vulnerable to earthquakes due to a single major catastrophic event that occurred during the reporting period. Similarly, earthquakes are rare in Guinea, however a significant event occurred in the reporting period. In contrast, Guatemala appears far less vulnerable because the catastrophic earthquake of 1976 occurred outside of the reporting period. China and Peru are other countries that experienced very high mortality in catastrophic earthquakes during the 1970s and therefore outside of the reporting period. The analysis, however, does show countries, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan and India, which do experience frequent earthquakes suffering proportionally far higher loss of life than others, such as Chile or the United States of America. The tight fit of countries along an axis from the bottom left to the top right-hand corner indicates intuitively a strong correlation between the number of deaths and physical exposure. In other words, the more people living in areas exposed to earthquake events, the higher the risk of death.
Published in: Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development - A Global Report.
Copyright © United Nations Development Programme, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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