Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Mauritania

Population below five meters above sea level in Mauritania in 2015 — 21%. Ranked 199 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 2.13 pp.

2015 21% +1.77 pp vs 2000
World rank 199of 215
Period maximum 21%2015
Period minimum 18.87%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Mauritania, 1990–201518192021221990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 18.87%2000: 19.24%2015: 21%
Change over the period: +2.13 pp Annual average: 0.09 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Mauritania 21%
World 4.06%
Western Africa computed 3.33%
Population below five meters above sea level — Mauritania, by year Mauritania All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 21
2000 19.24
1990 18.87

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.