Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Greenland

Population below five meters above sea level in Greenland in 2015 — 59.86%. Ranked 212 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 0.94 pp.

2015 59.86% +1.55 pp vs 2000
World rank 212of 215
Period maximum 59.86%2015
Period minimum 58.31%2000

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Greenland, 1990–20155858.55959.5601990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 58.92%2000: 58.31%2015: 59.86%
Change over the period: +0.94 pp Annual average: 0.04 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Greenland 59.86%
World 4.06%
Northern Europe computed 4.01%
High-income countries computed 4.19%
Population below five meters above sea level — Greenland, by year Greenland All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 59.86
2000 58.31
1990 58.92

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.