Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — European Union

Population below five meters above sea level in the European Union in 2015 — 4.61%. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 0.31 pp.

2015 4.61% +0.17 pp vs 2000
World rank
Period maximum 4.61%2015
Period minimum 4.3%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — European Union, 1990–20154.24.34.44.54.64.71990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 4.3%2000: 4.44%2015: 4.61%
Change over the period: +0.31 pp Annual average: 0.01 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

European Union 4.61%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — European Union, by year European Union All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 4.61
2000 4.44
1990 4.3

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.