Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Eastern Africa

Population below five meters above sea level in Eastern Africa in 2015 — 0.86%. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 0.12 pp.

2015 0.86% −0.07 pp vs 2000
World rank
Period maximum 0.97%1990
Period minimum 0.86%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Eastern Africa, 1990–20150.850.90.9511990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 0.97%2000: 0.92%2015: 0.86%
Change over the period: −0.12 pp Annual average: 0 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Eastern Africa 0.86%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — Eastern Africa, by year Eastern Africa All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 0.86
2000 0.92
1990 0.97

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.