Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Cayman Islands

Population below five meters above sea level in the Cayman Islands in 2015 — 17.62%. Ranked 194 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 2.47 pp.

2015 17.62% −1.68 pp vs 2000
World rank 194of 215
Period maximum 20.09%1990
Period minimum 17.62%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Cayman Islands, 1990–201517181920211990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 20.09%2000: 19.3%2015: 17.62%
Change over the period: −2.47 pp Annual average: -0.1 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Cayman Islands 17.62%
World 4.06%
Caribbean computed 3.94%
High-income countries computed 4.19%
Population below five meters above sea level — Cayman Islands, by year Cayman Islands All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 17.62
2000 19.3
1990 20.09

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.