Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — Tonga

Population below five meters above sea level in Tonga in 2015 — 17.5%. Ranked 193 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has fallen by 1.23 pp.

2015 17.5% −0.79 pp vs 2000
World rank 193of 215
Period maximum 18.73%1990
Period minimum 17.5%2015

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — Tonga, 1990–20151717.51818.5191990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 18.73%2000: 18.29%2015: 17.5%
Change over the period: −1.23 pp Annual average: -0.05 pp

Comparison, 2015

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

Tonga 17.5%
World 4.06%
Population below five meters above sea level — Tonga, by year Tonga All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 17.5
2000 18.29
1990 18.73

Polynesia, 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.