
The above map of the world shows how floods can be devastating to the population of each country.
The Countries With The Highest Flood Risk
This study of 188 countries published by Nature Communications, as visualized by the business website Visual Capitalist, lists two categories:
- Countries exposed to floods ranked by the percentage of the country’s total population that will be affected
- Countries exposed to floods ranked by the actual number of people affected in each country
Flood-Risk Countries By Percentage Of Total Population
The Netherlands is the country with the highest flood risk in terms of the percentage of the population that will be exposed to it.
Out of its over 17 million inhabitants, 10.1 million of them will be affected by potential floods. That’s over 58% of the Dutch population.
Two Asian countries round up the top three countries that will be affected by high waters.
Second on the list is Bangladesh, with 57% of its people bound to be affected by floods, and third, Vietnam, with rising waters possibly affecting 46% of its people.
The top 25 countries in the list are dominated by countries in Asia, with 14.
Flood-Risk Countries By Affected Population Number
In terms of the actual number of people affected, mainland China tops the list, with over 394 million of its people exposed to flood waters.
Despite this large number, it only ranks 21st in the overall list according to population percentage, since it only accounts for 27.5% of the total Chinese population.
The rest of the top five countries in this category consist of India (390 million), Bangladesh (94 million), Indonesia (76 million), and Pakistan (72 million).
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