Last week a 6.7 earthquake hit Greece and Turkey killing at least two tourists. The Telegraph recently published a 2015 World Risk Report that was compiled by the United Nations University for Environment and Human Security, and both Greece and Turkey are listed among the countries in Europe where a natural disaster is most likely to strike. From the story: “The report assigned a risk percentage to a total of 173 countries, based on the chances of experiencing earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts and sea level rises.”
Well, I found a more recent (2016) report on Wikipedia. From that, here are the safest and least safe countries—next to the percentage risk of experiencing a natural disaster:
The 20 safest countries:
- Qatar — 0.08%
- Malta — 0.60%
- Saudi Arabia — 1.14%
- Barbados — 1.32%
- Grenada — 1.42%
- Iceland — 1.52%
- Bahrain — 1.69%
- Kiribati — 1.78%
- United Arab Emirates — 1.97%
- Sweden — 2.12%
- Norway — 2.19%
- Finland — 2.21%
- Singapore — 2.27%
- Egypt — 2.29%
- Israel — 2.30%
- Estonia — 2.36%
- Switzerland — 2.37%
- Luxembourg — 2.43%
- Seychelles — 2.55%
- France — 2.62%
The 20 least safe countries:
- Gambia — 12.07%
- Vietnam — 12.53%
- Japan — 12.99%
- Fiji — 13.15%
- Guinea-Bissau — 13.56%
- Nicaragua — 14.62%
- Mauritius — 15.53%
- Timor-Leste — 15.69%
- El Salvador — 16.05%
- Papua New Guinea — 16.43%
- Cambodia — 16.58%
- Costa Rica — 17.00%
- Brunei — 17.00%
- Solomon Islands — 19.14%
- Bangladesh — 19.17%
- Guatemala — 19.88%
- Philippines — 26.70%
- Tonga — 29.33%
- Vanuatu — 36.28%
- Sao Tome and Principe — (unavailable)
- Samoa — (unavailable)
Related:
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You need to find a similar list related to war/terrorist events.
This list is suspicious and filled with flaws! To begin with, Barbados and Granada are tiny islands, part of the Lesser Antilles, located in the Americas hurricane corridor between the Atlantic and the Caribbean. So there are several hurricanes hitting those islands and causing destruction and death every year! That’s definitely not a safe area to live by any standards! Same thing for Kiribati, another country made up of mini slands and atolls in the middle of the Pacific ocean suffering badly from coastal erosion due to global warming. In fact, the whole nation is scheduled to disappear swallowed up by the Pacific ocean soon! That is not a safe! Moving on to the country of Island which sits right on top of the Atlantic Ridge making the country prone to earthquakes and lava flows. I remember several eruptions throughout the years in Island, particularly by Hekla volcano, which caused much property destruction! Now, moving to the Americas mainland, Nicaragua has several volcanoes on the Pacific side of the country but only Cerro Negro volcano has caused some destruction in the 20’th century, unlike the several volcanoes that wreak havoc every decade in Island! Suspiciously though, Island is reported as 158 times “safer” than Nicaragua! Another miss, the US, located at the end of the hurricane corridor, suffers from hurricane destruction every year like Andrew’s, Katrina’s, etc. At the same time the country is hit by earthquakes, heatwaves, and blizzards that kill people and destroy property ever year as well. And yet, the US didn’t make the list among the most dangerous at all! Finally, the list does not show Denmark, Lithuania, or Latvia where there are no natural disasters ever! Whomever made this list is either too young to remember facts, or didn’t do his research well, or he’s simply biased against certain countries out of ignorance or media brainwashing!
Sorry Ausiz you’re wrong about Barbados. The truth is Barbados is outside of the hurricane corridor. It is too far south to be at risk of hurricanes. As a matter of fact…it’s been 64 years since the last hurricane hit Barbados.
What about singapore
saudi arabia is obviously the safest place in the world from anything try this place for 20 years then say something
Qatar is (correction)
this list should have the country GUYANA, it is located in the Caribbean and south America. It never got any major natural disaster for the past 70 years only in 2005 it had a minor flood, when the earthquake hit Trinidad and Venezuela Guyana only felt a slight shake and nothing was damage. this country is blesses
I’ve lived in Brunei my entire life and never experienced anything worse than a minor flood. I’ve also never heard of anyone older than I am tell me about any natural disasters. Unless I don’t understand the format of your list, than you putting Brunei among the least safest countries is wrong. There is even a disaster management reference handbook that states so.
Are you sure about this haha Qatar have earth quakes only last year and drought! We have none of that in Australia well in Victoria! We have bushfire but thats been started by brat kids! You left out the best! We have mild earth quakes no tornadoes nothing you definitely got this all wrong! But don’t come here if you’re violent you’ll get deported!