Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — High-income countries

Population below five meters above sea level in high-income countries in 2015 — 4.19%. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 0.03 pp.

2015 4.19% +0.01 pp vs 2000
World rank
Period maximum 4.19%2015
Period minimum 4.16%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — High-income countries, 1990–20154.154.164.174.184.191990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 4.16%2000: 4.18%2015: 4.19%
Change over the period: +0.03 pp Annual average: 0 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: High-income countries

High-income countries 4.19%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — High-income countries, by year High-income countries All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 4.19
2000 4.18
1990 4.16

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.