Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Papua New Guinea

Population below five meters above sea level in Papua New Guinea in 2015 — 7.56%. Ranked 161 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 2.96 pp.

2015 7.56% −1.89 pp vs 2000
World rank 161of 215
Period maximum 10.52%1990
Period minimum 7.56%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Papua New Guinea, 1990–201578910111990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 10.52%2000: 9.45%2015: 7.56%
Change over the period: −2.96 pp Annual average: -0.12 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea 7.56%
World 4.06%
Melanesia computed 9.22%
Population below five meters above sea level — Papua New Guinea, by year Papua New Guinea All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 7.56
2000 9.45
1990 10.52

Melanesia, 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.