Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Timor-Leste

Population below five meters above sea level in Timor-Leste in 2015 — 2.97%. Ranked 109 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 0.2 pp.

2015 2.97% −0.09 pp vs 2000
World rank 109of 215
Period maximum 3.16%1990
Period minimum 2.97%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Timor-Leste, 1990–20152.9533.053.13.153.21990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 3.16%2000: 3.06%2015: 2.97%
Change over the period: −0.2 pp Annual average: -0.01 pp

Comparison, 2015

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste 2.97%
World 4.06%
South-Eastern Asia computed 12.63%
Population below five meters above sea level — Timor-Leste, by year Timor-Leste All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 2.97
2000 3.06
1990 3.16

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.