Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Bahamas

Population below five meters above sea level in the Bahamas in 2015 — 12.86%. Ranked 186 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 1.14 pp.

2015 12.86% +0.9 pp vs 2000
World rank 186of 215
Period maximum 12.86%2015
Period minimum 11.71%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Bahamas, 1990–201511.51212.5131990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 11.71%2000: 11.96%2015: 12.86%
Change over the period: +1.14 pp Annual average: 0.05 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Bahamas

Bahamas 12.86%
World 4.06%
Caribbean computed 3.94%
High-income countries computed 4.19%
Population below five meters above sea level — Bahamas, by year Bahamas All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 12.86
2000 11.96
1990 11.71

About the indicator

The share of the population living less than five meters above sea level. The threshold is not arbitrary: this is the zone already threatened by storm surges and, over the coming century, by sea level rise. In absolute numbers the densely populated deltas of Asia come first; by share, island states and the Netherlands — and the latter show that a high share does not equal high risk, since everything depends on whether coastal defenses are in place.

Important: The series is not annual: the World Bank computes it from a digital elevation model for individual benchmark years, the latest of which is 2015, and has not updated it since. No one has fresher data of this kind; the values are best read as an order-of-magnitude estimate.

Source: World Development Indicators (World Bank), license CC BY 4.0.