Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Jamaica

Population below five meters above sea level in Jamaica in 2015 — 9.15%. Ranked 170 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 1.39 pp.

2015 9.15% −0.63 pp vs 2000
World rank 170of 215
Period maximum 10.55%1990
Period minimum 9.15%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Jamaica, 1990–201599.51010.5111990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 10.55%2000: 9.79%2015: 9.15%
Change over the period: −1.39 pp Annual average: -0.06 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Jamaica 9.15%
World 4.06%
Caribbean computed 3.94%
Population below five meters above sea level — Jamaica, by year Jamaica All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 9.15
2000 9.79
1990 10.55

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.