Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Palau

Population below five meters above sea level in Palau in 2015 — 12.29%. Ranked 181 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 1.5 pp.

2015 12.29% +0.73 pp vs 2000
World rank 181of 215
Period maximum 12.29%2015
Period minimum 10.79%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Palau, 1990–201510.51111.51212.51990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 10.79%2000: 11.55%2015: 12.29%
Change over the period: +1.5 pp Annual average: 0.06 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Palau 12.29%
World 4.06%
Micronesia (subregion) computed 20.93%
Population below five meters above sea level — Palau, by year Palau All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 12.29
2000 11.55
1990 10.79

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.