Topic 2: The global context of humanitarian relief

World Disaster Report

The most comprehensive overview of the previous year’s disasters comes from the Annual Red Cross World Disasters Report (WDR). It is useful to compare and contrast this with a second source of disaster-related material, which is Munich Re’s Annual Report entitled ‘ Topics Geo – Natural Catastrophes’, although the definition of ‘natural catastrophe’ varies from that of the WDR’s ‘disaster’.

The table below is drawn from the Red Cross World Disasters Report (WDR) 2011.

Year	Number of Natural & Technological Disasters	Number of People Killed	Number of People Affected (thousands)	Damage Incurred (USD millions at 2009 prices)
2010	640	304,476	304,388	123,302
2009	597	17,660	223,236	47,282
2008	626	242,198	225,374	193,312
2007	693	24,496	214,356	79,363
2006	729	33,827	147,519	37,417
2005	810	100,552	161,435	240,872
2004	743	252,339	179,248	157,290
2003	706	120,707	269, 660	82,495
2002	799	100,995	708,595	75,875
2001	727	115,933	242,606	35,992
Average 2001-2010	707	131,318	267,641¹	107,212²

Figure 2.1: World Disaster Report, disaster-related material over period 2001-2010

Note the breakdown between natural and technological disasters over this period:

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Average
Natural disasters	402	439	372	384	439	429	417	367	367	406	402
Technological disasters	325	360	334	359	371	300	276	259	230	234	304
Total	727	799	706	743	810	729	693	626	597	640	707

Source:
1 i.e. the average number of people affected annually by disaster over the period 2000-2009 averaged 276 641
2 i.e. the average damage bill from disasters annually over the period 2000-2009 averaged USD 107,212,000.000 or approximately USD 107 billion

Whilst the average number of people killed each year by disasters over the period 2000-2009 averaged just over 131,000, these figures vary enormously from year to year.

In fact they often reflect losses from particularly mega-losses from specific disaster events (often earthquake-related), such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake (nearly 230,000 killed); the 2008 Myanmar/Burma cyclone (140,0000 dead/missing) and the Sichuan earthquake (88,000); the 2005 Kashmir earthquake (80,000); and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (227,000)
By the end of the first quarter of 2011, there had been major disasters is Australia (floods/Cyclone Yasi), New Zealand (Christchurch earthquake); and Japan (east coast earthquake/tsunami). The early estimated damage bill in Japan is already at least USD 300 billion

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