Nature's Dangers

The natural world is the most beautiful and wondrous thing to explore, but it must be respected at all times. This is not just to protect the delicate balance of nature, but also because it can be a dangerous place, filled with unforgiving climates, harsh landscapes, and deadly creatures. All of these can be avoided with the help of expert knowledge and proper planning, though the same cannot be said for natural disasters.

How Deadly are the World's Most Common Natural Disasters?

Natural disasters are often completely outside of human control and are some of the most dangerous events to occur on planet earth. What's more, with climate change disrupting the natural order of the elements, we're beginning to see some natural disasters such as floods and fierce storms become ever more frequently occurring. Not only this, but as the world's human population continues to grow to record levels, we are more than ever in need of environmentally stable areas to live.

With this in mind, Outforia wanted to investigate just how deadly natural disasters can be, and where in the world are you most likely to face the threat of one of these elemental calamities?

The Deadliest Disaster Types

To begin, we first wanted to find out which disaster types have historically been the most deadly. We've looked at data for the last 20 years as well as all-time records to reveal the types of natural disasters with the most recorded deaths.

Droughts have caused the highest number of deaths, with more than 11.7 million fatalities attributed to a prolonged lack of rain. The second most deadly disaster type is floods, which have caused almost 7 million deaths worldwide. This is followed by earthquakes and storms in third and fourth place, causing 2.3 and 1.4 million deaths, respectively.

Since the Year 2000