Executive Summary
Compared with the average for the last 30 years (1993-2022), the frequency of global natural disasters was 3% less in 2023, the affected population was 53% less, the death population was 73% more, but the direct economic loss was 32% higher. Flood disas- ters were the most frequent with a total of 152 times, 3.5% more than the historical average, affecting the largest number of people at 32,392,800, 66% less than the his- torical average. The direct economic losses caused by storm disasters were the larg- est, at about USD 100.845 billion, 50% more than the historical average. Seismic activ- ities increased, causing the largest number of deaths at 62,451, 140% more than the historical average. The number of deaths from wildfire disasters increased and the direct economic losses were 41% higher than the historical average. The occurrence of landslides increased, resulting in 30% fewer deaths, 35% less affected population than the historical average, and 100% lower direct economic loss. Regionally, Asia had the highest frequency of natural disasters in 2023, followed by South America and Africa. Asia was the continent with the largest number of deaths due to disasters, followed by Africa. Asia had the highest economic losses due to disasters, followed by North America. Developing countries were more affected by natural disasters than developed countries, mainly by floods, storms and earthquakes.
The Special Report found that natural disasters in China in 2023 were mainly floods, typhoons and geological disasters, while droughts, hailstorms, freezing and snow disasters, earthquakes, sandstorms and forest and grassland fires also occurred to varying degrees. Disaster losses throughout the year read an affected population of over 95 million, death and missing toll of 691 people, an evacuated population of 3.343 million; collapsed housing of 209,000 rooms, with another 2.06 million rooms damaged to varying degrees; affected crops of 10,539.3 thousand hectares; and direct economic losses of CNY 345.45 billion.
The Special Report found that under the combined influence of heat wave hazard and population exposure, the population heat wave risk in areas such as the Gangetic Plain of the Indian Peninsula is relatively high, with most areas exceeding 5 x 10‘ per-son-days; the population heat wave risk in central and western Africa, eastern and western Asia is slightly higher, with some areas exceeding 2 x 10‘ person-days; the population heat wave risk in Europe, southeastern North America, and southeastern South America is relatively low, with most areas less than 0.5 x 10‘ person-days. This not only reflects the characteristics of the impact of heat waves on different regions around the world, but also highlights the urgency and necessity of the world's joint response to heat wave disasters.
The Special Report assessed the earthquake that struck Turkiye in February 2023 and found that this typical and rare “twin shock” earthquake and its frequent and high magnitude aftershocks have become one of the world’ s deadliest and most economi-cally damaging earthquake disasters in the past two decades. Due to the fact that there were a large number of bricks and concrete buildings and few frame structures in the earthquake area, and the buildings were not designed to adequately resist seis-mic forces during earthquakes, the 2023 earthquake leads to the collapse of a large number of buildings that were claimed to “meet the seismic standards” , which increased the probability of casualties.