Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Maldives

Population below five meters above sea level in the Maldives in 2015 — 49.17%. Ranked 209 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 6.62 pp.

2015 49.17% −3.72 pp vs 2000
World rank 209of 215
Period maximum 55.79%1990
Period minimum 49.17%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Maldives, 1990–201548505254561990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 55.79%2000: 52.89%2015: 49.17%
Change over the period: −6.62 pp Annual average: -0.26 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Maldives 49.17%
World 4.06%
South Asia 2.56%
Southern Asia computed 2.2%
Population below five meters above sea level — Maldives, by year Maldives All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 49.17
2000 52.89
1990 55.79

Southern Asia, 2015

The same indicator for neighboring countries — with links to their pages

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.