Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — East Asia & Pacific

Population below five meters above sea level in East Asia & Pacific in 2015 — 7.41%. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 1.16 pp.

2015 7.41% +0.73 pp vs 2000
World rank
Period maximum 7.41%2015
Period minimum 6.25%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — East Asia & Pacific, 1990–201566.577.51990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 6.25%2000: 6.68%2015: 7.41%
Change over the period: +1.16 pp Annual average: 0.05 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: East Asia & Pacific

East Asia & Pacific 7.41%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — East Asia & Pacific, by year East Asia & Pacific All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 7.41
2000 6.68
1990 6.25

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.