Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Marshall Islands

Population below five meters above sea level in the Marshall Islands in 2015 — 67.97%. Ranked 213 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 0.98 pp.

2015 67.97% −0.13 pp vs 2000
World rank 213of 215
Period maximum 68.1%2000
Period minimum 67%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Marshall Islands, 1990–201566.56767.56868.51990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 67%2000: 68.1%2015: 67.97%
Change over the period: +0.98 pp Annual average: 0.04 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Marshall Islands 67.97%
World 4.06%
Micronesia (subregion) computed 20.93%
Population below five meters above sea level — Marshall Islands, by year Marshall Islands All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 67.97
2000 68.1
1990 67

Micronesia, 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.