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In 20231 , the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded a total of 399 disasters related to natural hazards. These events resulted in 86,473 fatalities3 and affected 93.1 million people. The economic losses amounted to US$202.7 billion. The 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic was the most catastrophic event of the year regarding mortality and economic damage, with 56,683 reported deaths and US$42.9 billion in damages. This earthquake impacted an estimated 18 million people, making it the second most impactful event in terms of affected individuals, following the 2023 Indonesian Drought, which affected 18.8 million people from June to September 2023.
The year 2023 experienced high disaster mortality, with a total of 86,473 deaths, exceeding the 20-year average of 64,148 deaths and a median value4 of 19,290 deaths for the same period, mainly due to the dramatic earthquake in Türkiye and Syria in February 2023, counting for two-thirds of the EM-DAT total deaths. The number of individuals affected by disasters, standing at 93.1 million, is below the 2003-2022 yearly average of 175.5 million. The difference is mainly due to the relatively low number of new significant droughts5 . Furthermore, the report likely underestimates the mortality from heat waves and the number of 2023 heatwave events6 . In terms of economic losses, the reported figure of US$202.7 billion is slightly higher than the EM-DAT 2003-2022 yearly average of US$196.3 billion.
In Türkiye, an earthquake sequence with magnitudes of 7.8 Mw and 7.5 Mw on February 6 led to 50,783 casualties and affected approximately 9.2 million people. In the Syrian Arab Republic, reports indicate 5,900 deaths and 8.8 million people affected by this disaster. The total economic damage is currently estimated at least at US$34 billion for Türkiye and US$8.9 billion for Syria. Additionally, two other seismic events are among the top-10 deadliest disasters. On September 8, a magnitude 6.8 Mw earthquake in the High Atlas Mountain Region, southwest of Marrakesh, Morocco, resulted in 2,946 fatalities and economic losses estimated at US$7 billion. In Western Afghanistan, an earthquake on October 7 in the Herat