Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Australia and New Zealand

Population below five meters above sea level in Australia and New Zealand in 2015 — 3.55%. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 0.06 pp.

2015 3.55% −0.02 pp vs 2000
World rank
Period maximum 3.61%1990
Period minimum 3.55%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Australia and New Zealand, 1990–20153.543.563.583.63.621990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 3.61%2000: 3.58%2015: 3.55%
Change over the period: −0.06 pp Annual average: 0 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand 3.55%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — Australia and New Zealand, by year Australia and New Zealand All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 3.55
2000 3.58
1990 3.61

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.