Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Gambia

Population below five meters above sea level in the Gambia in 2015 — 4.31%. Ranked 128 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 3.3 pp.

2015 4.31% −1.52 pp vs 2000
World rank 128of 215
Period maximum 7.61%1990
Period minimum 4.31%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Gambia, 1990–2015456781990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 7.61%2000: 5.83%2015: 4.31%
Change over the period: −3.3 pp Annual average: -0.13 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Gambia 4.31%
World 4.06%
Western Africa computed 3.33%
Low-income countries computed 1.05%
Population below five meters above sea level — Gambia, by year Gambia All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 4.31
2000 5.83
1990 7.61

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.