Population below five meters above sea level — all countries

Population below five meters above sea level — United Kingdom

Population below five meters above sea level in the United Kingdom in 2015 — 2.75%. Ranked 105 in the world out of 215. Since 1990, the indicator has risen by 0.06 pp.

2015 2.75% +0.03 pp vs 2000
World rank 105of 215
Period maximum 2.75%2015
Period minimum 2.69%1990

Trend over time

1990–2015 · % of population

Population below five meters above sea level — United Kingdom, 1990–20152.682.72.722.742.761990199319961999200220052008201120141990: 2.69%2000: 2.71%2015: 2.75%
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: United Kingdom

United Kingdom 2.75%
World 4.06%
Northern Europe computed 4.01%
High-income countries computed 4.19%
Population below five meters above sea level — United Kingdom, by year United Kingdom All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2015 2.75
2000 2.71
1990 2.69

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.