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Fast facts about disasters

  • In the 1990s, an average of 80,000 people died each year in natural disasters.
  • In 2003, about 700 natural disasters killed about 75,000 people and caused about US$65 billion in damage, according to a 2004 report from Munich Re, an insurance firm. Of this amount, insured losses accounted for only $15.8 billion.
  • Because the poor often are forced to live in dangerous locations, such as flood plains and steep slopes, they are usually the people most devastated by natural disasters.
  • Worldwide economic losses in the 1990s from natural disasters could have been reduced by $280 billion if $40 billion had been spent in preventative measures.