Deadliest Countries for Natural Disasters

In which countries were the highest percentage of deaths caused by a natural disaster, from 1990-2017?
We give you the type of disaster which caused the most deaths
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: November 17, 2019
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First submittedNovember 13, 2019
Times taken20,062
Average score45.0%
Rating4.41
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%
Disaster
Country
2.71
Earthquake
Haiti
1.25
Tropical cyclone
Honduras
0.91
Tsunami
Sri Lanka
0.86
Tropical cyclone
Myanmar
0.85
Earthquake
Iran
0.82
Landslide
Venezuela
0.64
Tsunami
Samoa
0.46
Tropical cyclone
Bangladesh
0.44
Tropical cyclone
Vanuatu
0.41
Tsunami
Indonesia
0.31
Tsunami
Maldives
0.29
Earthquake
Nepal
0.26
Tropical cyclone
F.S. Micronesia
0.26
Tropical cyclone
Nicaragua
0.23
Landslide
Bhutan
0.22
Earthquake
Pakistan
0.22
Tropical storm
El Salvador
0.20
Earthquake
Afghanistan
0.20
Earthquake
Turkey
0.19
Tsunami
Papua New Guinea
+22
Level 72
Nov 17, 2019
That is a VERY tough quiz
+7
Level 95
Nov 17, 2019
I thought for sure that the Bahamas would be on the list from hurricane Dorian earlier this year.

Edit: Just googled it. The official death toll was 50. That's much lower than I would have though given how hard the islands were hit. They basically had a category 4/5 hurricane stall out over the islands for most of a day. Glad to hear the loss of life wasn't as bad is it could have been!

+2
Level 71
Nov 18, 2019
I wonder if they're still really trying to calculate the loss of life? A lot of people were literally washed out to sea. I imagine that in a year or so they'll have a much clearer picture of how many people died in Dorian.
+3
Level 71
Nov 18, 2019
Also, this is stops at 2017, so there's that!
+1
Level 76
Feb 13, 2020
Yeah, I was expecting the Bahamas to be on here, with it being in the Bermuda Triangle and all..
+2
Level 76
Nov 18, 2019
The loss of life was much greater than this number. Hundreds of people remain classified as "missing", and the death toll also notably excludes undocumented Haitian immigrants, who mostly resided in flimsy shacks that were generally obliterated by the hurricane, causing an even greater loss of life. I don't think they even really tried to make a realistic calculation, at least for now, possibly in order not to scare future tourists away...
+1
Level 72
Nov 19, 2019
Just to complete/updated the info: the official death toll stands now at 67, with more expected.
+1
Level 56
May 13, 2022
Now it's at around 300 (including unaccounted for).
+1
Level 71
Nov 18, 2019
Very interesting, could you explain the methodology slightly more? I'm assuming this is calculated per year-- if so, could you add the relevant year to the answer columns for reference?
+8
Level ∞
Nov 18, 2019
The source data lists the percentage of people who died from a natural disaster in each country every year. I averaged those percentages. Then, I did some more research (by Googling the countries and dates) to see which kind of natural disaster caused the most deaths over that time period.
+1
Level 82
Feb 13, 2020
so... it's about your chances of dying by natural disaster in the given country? I found the % column to be a little confusing as well.
+1
Level 75
Jul 5, 2021
If by "wiped off" you mean that the islands disappeared, that didn't happen. There were some islands, both inhabited and uninhabited, that were completely washed over by the waves, which meant that the entire island was salted, killing virtually all plant life and a significant number of people. Four (if I remember right) of those inhabited islands were subsequently abandoned, but they still exist.
+2
Level 71
May 11, 2023
I understand the point of averaging the percentages and all, but I just want to point out it's a bit misleading. In Haiti, for example, a sobering 70% of all deaths in 2010 were caused by the earthquake, but most normal years, the percent is less than 0.1%. Similarly, Honduras had a really devastating cyclone in 1998, but basically nothing at all any other years. Most of these death tolls are dominated by 1, maybe 2, extreme events, as opposed to an equal chance of dying every year.
+1
Level 78
Sep 13, 2023
Also, it's not mathematically correct to average %s. eg, if a country had 10 deaths one year with one to a natural disaster (10%), then 100 deaths the next year with 50 to a natural disaster (50%), the actual % to natural disasters would be 46%, while the average would suggest it was 30%. Generally countries' death tolls don't vary that much, but it could probably make a significant difference for some of the smaller countries
+4
Level 84
Feb 13, 2020
I must've tried ~180 countries, somehow managing to tip-toe around about half of the correct answers.
+2
Level 67
Feb 20, 2020
Could you differentiate between hurricane and cyclone based on location?
+2
Level 64
Jun 17, 2020
Somehow I get the seven least guessed answers yet I forget Haiti. I'm out.
+1
Level 70
Oct 27, 2020
South Pacific and Central/South America will get you 12/20
+1
Level 77
Feb 9, 2022
I'm glad the QM cleared up the % column a bit. I was trying to figure out what Bangladeshi cyclone killed 750 thousand people.
+1
Level 69
Oct 4, 2022
Interesting: Not a single European (excluding Turkey's bit) or a single AFRICAN country.
+3
Level 83
Dec 16, 2022
Natural disasters are comparatively rare in Europe and usually well mitigated. In Africa, other causes of death are likely to overshadow natural disasters.