Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Sub-Saharan Africa

Population below five meters above sea level in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2015 — 1.67%. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 0.02 pp.

2015 1.67% +0.02 pp vs 2000
World rank
Period maximum 1.67%2015
Period minimum 1.65%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Sub-Saharan Africa, 1990–20151.651.651.661.661.671.671990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 1.65%2000: 1.65%2015: 1.67%
Change over the period: +0.02 pp Annual average: 0 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa 1.67%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — Sub-Saharan Africa, by year Sub-Saharan Africa All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 1.67
2000 1.65
1990 1.65

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.