Asian Disaster Reduction Center

Natural Disaster Databook 2022
An Analytical Overview

NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Table of Contents
1.

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 2

2.

Natural Disaster Data ................................................................................................... 4
2.1

2.1.1

Occurrence (global) ......................................................................................................... 4

2.1.2

Deaths (global) ................................................................................................................ 6

2.1.3

People Affected (global).................................................................................................. 7

2.1.4

Economic Losses (global) ................................................................................................ 8

2.2

3.

4.

Global Disaster Data................................................................................................................ 4

Asian Disaster Data ................................................................................................................. 9

2.2.1

Occurrence (Asia) .......................................................................................................... 11

2.2.2

Deaths (Asia) ................................................................................................................. 12

2.2.3

People Affected (Asia)................................................................................................... 13

2.2.4

Economic Losses (Asia) ................................................................................................. 13

Climate Related Disasters ......................................................................................... 15
3.1

Global trend in climate-related disasters ............................................................................. 15

3.2

Asian trend in climate-related disasters ............................................................................... 16

COVID-19 Data............................................................................................................ 18
4.1

Global Situation..................................................................................................................... 18

4.2

COVID-19 Situation in ADRC Member Countries .................................................................. 18

List of Figures
Figure 1 Trend of natural disaster occurrence 1900-2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)................................. 4
Figure 2 Global disaster occurrence by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)......... 5
Figure 3 Number of people killed by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)............. 6
Figure 4 Number of people affected by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) ........ 8
Figure 5 Economic losses by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) ......................... 9
Figure 6 Trend of natural disaster occurrence in Asia 1900-2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) ................... 10
Figure 7 Top 10 countries in Asia with high occurrence of disasters in 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) .. 10
Figure 8 Disaster occurrence in Asia by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) ...... 11
Figure 9 Number of people killed by disaster type in Asia 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)12
Figure 10 Number of affected by disaster type in Asia 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) .... 13
Figure 11 Economic losses by disaster type in Asia 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) .......... 14
Figure 12 Global trend of climate-related disasters 1992-2021 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) ...................... 15
Figure 13 Trend of climate-related disasters in Asia 1992-2021 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023) ..................... 16
Figure 14 Global situation of COVID-19 as of July 2023 (WHO, 2023).................................................. 18
Figure 15 COVID-19 cases in ADRC member countries as of 31 December 2022 (WHO, 2023) .......... 19
Figure 16 ADRC member countries with the highest increase in the number of deaths by 2022 ....... 20
Figure 17 COVID-19 Situation in ADRC member countries as of December 2022. .............................. 21

Annex 1: Notes on the Sources of Data

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

1.

Introduction

ADRC publishes the Natural Disaster Databook annually to provide statistical andanalytical perspectives of disaster data. For its 2022 issue, ADRC used the data from theEmergency Event Database (EM-DAT) downloaded on 16 May 2023 to analyze thenumber of occurrences, deaths, people affected, and economic losses from disasterevents – focusing only on eight disaster types: drought, earthquake, extreme temperature,
flood, landslide, storm, wildfire, and volcanic activity (Annex 1: Notes on the Sources ofData). The analysis compares the following:•

Comparison of natural disasters in 2022 with natural disasters in the last 30 years(1992-2021)•

Comparison of climate-related disasters in 2022 with climate-related disasters in thelast 30 years (1992-2021)•

Comparison of the COVID-19 situations between global level and regional level(highlighting the situations in ADRC member countries)

Here are some of the observations. First, although there was an increasing trend ofdisaster occurrence globally, a decreasing trend of disaster occurrence was observed in
Asian region in 2022. Likewise, the number of deaths, people affected, and the economic
losses from natural disasters in Asia in 2022 were lower compared to the annual averages
for the past 30 years (1992-2021). Secondly, flood and storm remain to be the frequently
occurring disaster types globally and in the Asian region in 2022 and during the past 30
years. Moreover, climate-related disasters, particularly from flood, storm, and drought,
account for the highest number of people affected and economic losses in 2022 and during
the past 30 years. Thirdly, towards the end of 2022, both the number of confirmed casesand deaths from COVID-19 had declined drastically following a huge surge around theglobe and at ADRC member countries. This drastic decline resulted in the lifting of COVID19 restrictions and opening of borders in over 100 countries in the beginning of 2023.
In 2022, a total of 388 disasters occurred globally. This is higher compared to the annual
average for the past 30 years (1992-2021), which is 340. Among the most devastingdisasters in 2022 were floods in Pakistan (June to September), droughts in Africa (e.g.,
Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, China, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Chad, Niger, and Mali), typhoons in the Philippines (e.g., Megi in April
and Nalgae in October), and hurricanes (e.g., Hurricane Ian in Cuba and Hurricane Fionain Dominican Republic). While flood was the most frequent disaster in 2022, extreme
temperature caused the most deaths (16,416 deaths) accounting to more than half of all
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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
disaster-related deaths. However, during the last 30 years (1992 to 2021), earthquakes
remained to cause the most deaths from at an average of 990 deaths per disaster event
compared to only 52 per disaster event in 2022. The damage caused by disasters in 2022
(USD 223.84 million) is higher than the annual average disaster damage for the past 30
years (annual average of USD 121.46 million).
The situation in Asia is different, where there is a decreasing trend of disaster impacts in
2022 compared to the last 30 years (1992-2021). Occurrence of disasters in 2022 is 137,
lower compared to the annual average of 141 for the past 30 years. The number of deathsis also lower in 2022 at 7,750 compared to 30,909 annual average for the past 30 years.
Disaster affected people in 2022 is 64.23 million, less than half of the average number ofaffected persons per year for the past 30 years, which is 168.81 million. The same is true
for the amount of disaster damage. It’s USD 48.75 million in 2022, relatively lower than
the average annual damage for the past 30 years, which is USD 52.88 million.
Climate-related disasters (e.g., drought, flood, and storm) have been increasing globally,
particularly since the 1940s. In 2022, a total of 308 climate-related disasters was recorded
worldwide, higher than those from the last 30 years (1992 to 2021) that showed an annual
average of 16 droughts, 147 floods, and 100 storms. Except for drought, the number ofpeople affected by 2022 climate-related disasters was less compared to the average
number of people affected per year by the same type of disasters during the past 30 years.
Meanwhile, the number of people affected by drought is 80 percent more compared to theannual average of the past 30 years. In Asia, a total of 98 climate-related disaster eventsoccurred in 2022, which were mostly floods.
Regarding COVID-19 situation, the highest number of confirmed cases for 2022 wasreported on 19 December with a total of 44.20 million confirmed cases reported on a single
day. A notable increase was observed in China in December due to an Omicron subvariant
with at least eight other Omicron subvariants were identified. Among the ADRC member
countries, China showed the greatest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases
at 84.93 million by the end of 2022. This was followed by India with 44.68 million, Japan
with 29.11 million, and the Republic of Korea with 29.06 million. Several ADRC member
countries started to relax COVID-19 restrictions in 2022, allowing more lenient policies on
movement domestically. India, Republic of Korea, and Japan are among the countries that
lifted their domestic restrictions. Vaccination also became a priority in ADRC member
countries following the relaxation of restrictions with all countries reporting to have had atleast two vaccines administered by 2022.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

2.

Natural Disaster Data

Using EM-DAT’s 2022 data, this section presents the trends of natural disaster analyzed
in terms of occurrence, death tolls, people affected, and economic losses.

2.1 Global Disaster Data
As shown in Figure 1, there has been an increasing trend of disaster occurrence from1900 to 2022. From an average of 56 disasters per year in the 1960s (with its peak of 81
in 1966), the average disaster occurrence in the most recent decade (2012-2022) has
reached 363 events per year. Furthermore, 388 disasters occurred in 2022, more thanthrice the average number of disaster events from 1990 to 2021 (119 disaster events).
During the entire period of 1900-2022, flood (39%) and storm (31%) were the mostfrequent types of disaster (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Trend of natural disaster occurrence 1900-2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

2.1.1 Occurrence (global)
Globally, a total of 388 disasters occurred in 2022. Flood (177 events, 46 percent), storm(105 events, 28 percent), and earthquake (31 events, 8 percent) were the three mostfrequent disasters (Figure 2). Several incidences of drought, landslide, wildfire, andextreme temperature and one volcanic activity were also recorded.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Figure 2 Global disaster occurrence by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

Among the most devastating disasters in 2022 include the floods in Pakistan (June to
September), Bangladesh (May to September), Guatemala (May), Nigeria (July), India(May), Chad (June), and South Sudan (August). There were droughts in Congo, Ethiopia,
Nigeria, Sudan, China, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,
Niger, and Mali. In the Philippines, typhoons Megi (local name: Agaton) in April and Nalgae(local name: Paeng) in October made tremendous impacts. In September, Cuba was
impacted by hurricane Ian and the Dominican Republic was impacted by hurricane Fiona.
Tropical Storm Sitrang impacted Bangladesh in October while Indonesia was impacted by
5.6-magnitude earthquake in November.
Overall, Southeast Asia was struck with the most disasters in 2022 (flood, storm,
earthquake, volcanic activity, and landslide) followed by South America (flood, landslide,earthquake, and wildfire), South Asia (flood, storm, earthquake), East Africa (flood, storm,and drought), and Northern America (storm, flood, and wildfire).
The number of disasters in 2022 is higher by 14 percent compared to the annual averagefor the past 30 years (1992-2021), which is 340. However, it was noted that the numberof extreme temperature events was less in 2022. Most of the extreme temperature eventsin 2022 were due to extreme heat. Only Mongolia had recorded an extreme cold
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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
temperature. Moreover, the temperature recorded in countries affected was relatively
higher compared to the average extreme temperature recorded for the same country forthe past 30 years.
2.1.2 Deaths (global)
In 2022, a total of 30,748 deaths caused by disasters (e.g., extreme temperature, flood,storm, drought, wildfire, landslide, earthquake, extreme temperature, and volcanic activity)
was recorded (Figure 3). It is fewer than the annual average between 1992 and 2021,
which is 49,414. Except for drought, the average number of deaths per disaster in 2022
(79 deaths per disaster event) is also lower than the average from 1992 to 2021 (145
deaths per disaster). While flood was the most frequent disaster in 2022, extreme
temperature caused the most deaths. Extreme temperatures caused 16,416 deaths,
which accounted for more than half of all disaster-related deaths in 2022. About 99 percentof them were recorded in Europe (Northern, Southern, and Western) while one percent
were in Asia (East, South, and West). The recorded death in 2022 for extreme temperature
was nearly three times the 6,040 average number of deaths for the past 30 years. Extreme
temperature also had the highest number of deaths per disaster event at 1,368 perdisaster event in 2022.

Figure 3 Number of people killed by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
Other disasters that recorded the most deaths are flood (26 percent), drought (8 percent),earthquake (5 percent), and storm (5 percent). Floods caused 8,038 deaths in 2022, which
is higher than the 30-year average of 6,740. This can be attributed to the recent major
floods that happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh to name a few.
Due to major earthquake events that happened over the last 30 years (e.g., Haiti,
Indonesia, and Japan), earthquakes remained to cause the most mortality from 1992 to
2021 at an average of 990 deaths per disaster event. Comparatively, death per
earthquake event for 2022 is significantly lower at 52 per event – the deadliest of thesewere the 6-magnitude earthquake that hit Afghanistan, the 6-magnitude earthquake inIndonesia, and the 7-magnitude in China. Meanwhile, death per drought incidence in 2022
reached 113, more than twice the average from 1992-2021, which is just 47. It was notedthat among the 23 drought incidences in 2022, a total of 2,601 deaths accounted for only
two incidences: Uganda and the USA.
Globally, the total number of deaths also showed an increasing trend from 1992-2021. In
terms of the total number of deaths per year, earthquake caused the most deaths per year
at 26,074. This was followed by storm (8,788 per year), flood (6,740), extreme temperature(6,040), drought (1,495), landslide (876), volcanic activity (109), and wildfire (83).
2.1.3 People Affected (global)
An estimated of 186 million people were affected in 2022. There are 34.56 million affected
people in Middle Africa, 32.26 million in West Africa, 30.55 million in East Africa, 13.20
million in North Africa, and 12.72 million in Southeast Asia. More than half of the affected
people in 2022 (107.35 million) were affected by drought. Meanwhile, floods affected
57.52 million (31 percent) storms affected 16.93 million (nine percent), while earthquakes
affected 3.6 million (2 percent).

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Figure 4 Number of people affected by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The total disaster-affected population in 2022 is fewer compared to the annual average ofthe affected population for the past three decades (1992-2021), which is 196.85 million.
However, drought affected more people in 2022 compared with the annual average from
1992-2021. Drought-affected population in 2022 (107.35 million) is 80 percent morecompared to the 1992-2021 average (59.61 million). Meanwhile, with reference to 19922021 data, Asia has the most affected population, wherein almost 84 percent of theaffected population was located. About 10 percent were in Africa while five percent werein America.
South Asia and African regions had the greatest number of people affected by disasters
in 2022. Disaster affected population in South Asia reached 44.46 million, 34.55 million in
Middle Africa, 32.24 million in West Africa, 30.42 million in East Africa, and 13.20 million
in North Africa.
2.1.4 Economic Losses (global)
Based on available data, 2022 disasters caused damage amounting to USD 223.84 billion.
About 59 percent of the said amount (USD 130.98 billion) was accounted for damage bystorms and 20 percent (USD 44.93 billion) for flood. The EM-DAT data also shows that8

NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
the damage from 2022 disasters cost more than the annual average damage for the past
30 years, which is USD 121.46 billion. Similarly, storm also caused the most damage from
1992-2021, at approximately USD 53.71 billion or 44 percent of the yearly damage causedby disasters. Flood, earthquake, drought, and extreme temperature also causes millionsof dollars’ worth of damage between 1992 and 2021.

Figure 5 Economic losses by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The available data also indicate that for the past 30 years, a huge part of the damage fromdisasters was concentrated in high-income countries (i.e., USA, Japan, China, Germany,
Italy, Australia, etc.). About 97 percent of the recorded annual average damage was
accounted for seven high-income countries. Some references pointed out that most of thelosses from disasters were higher in high-income countries due to the valuation of
infrastructure and houses, higher costs of living, and damage and losses are easily
calculated since most of them are insured.1

2.2 Asian Disaster Data
Historically, there were an average of 90 disasters per year in Asia between 1900 and
2021. During this period, China experienced the most disasters. Other countries with the1

ChristianAid, Counting the Cost 2022: A year of climate breakdown,
https://www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-12/counting-the-cost-2022.pdf

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
greatest number of disasters include India, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam,
Japan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.

Figure 6 Trend of natural disaster occurrence in Asia 1900-2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The top 10 countries with the highest number of disaster occurrences in 2022 include
Indonesia (20 events), Philippines (12), China (12), Thailand (11), Viet Nam (8),Afghanistan (8), India (7), Japan (7), Malaysia (6), and Nepal (6).

Figure 7 Top 10 countries in Asia with high occurrence of disasters in 2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

Some of the major disasters that occurred in 2022 include the 5.6-magnitude West Java
earthquake in November, the 7.3-magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra in February,
and the floods in Pakistan in January and October. Several tropical cyclones andearthquakes also struck the Philippines. Meanwhile, China had a major drought and10

NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
several instances of earthquakes. Floods and storms also occurred in several areas ofThailand, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Malaysia, India, Japan, and Nepal.
While there were only five disaster events in Pakistan, the 3-month flood and flash floodthat happened from June to September is considered one of the worst disasters in Asia in
2022. The disaster affected a total of 33 million and caused 1,739 deaths. Similarly, interms of the number of people affected, the flood in Bangladesh in October also affected
about 8.2 million while Typhoon Nalgae affected 7.9 million. China also experienced
drought in September which affected 6.1 million. India’s flood in May also affected 1.3
million.
2.2.1 Occurrence (Asia)
A total of 137 disasters occurred in Asia in 2022, which is lower compared to the annual
average of 141 between 1992 and 2021 (Figure 8). Most types of disasters showed anincreasing trend for the past 30 years, except for wildfire which has a decreasing linear
trend. Similar to the global trend, flood, storm, and earthquake are the most frequentdisasters in Asia from 1992-2021. Disaster occurrence per Asian region in 2022 also
followed the trend for the past 30 years. Most of the disasters occurred in Southeast Asia,
followed by South, East, West, and Central Asia.

Figure 8 Disaster occurrence in Asia by disaster type 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EMDAT/CRED, 2023)

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
2.2.2 Deaths (Asia)
A total of 927,278 disaster-related deaths occurred in Asia between 1992 and 2021, withan annual average of 30,909. About 58 percent of these numbers were caused byearthquake. Among other disasters that caused a high number of deaths for the past 30
years are storm (23 percent), flood (14 percent), extreme temperature (2 percent), andlandslide (2 percent). Most of the disaster-related deaths in Asia were from Southeast
Asia, South, and Eastern Asia, particularly Indonesia, Myanmar, China, India, Pakistan,and Sri Lanka. Comparatively, the 2022 figures were significantly lower at 7,550 deaths.

Figure 9 Number of people killed by disaster type in Asia 1992-2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The causes of most disaster-related deaths in Asia are different from the global trend. In
Asia, disasters that caused most deaths in 2022 include flood, earthquake, storm,
landslide, and extreme temperature. Regions that have the most disaster-related deaths
in Asia was also slightly different from the 1992-2021 trend. Majority of death due todisasters came from South Asia, accounting for the effect of the massive flood in Pakistan
and several disasters in India and Afghanistan. High death incidences were also recorded
in Southeast Asia (1,176), particularly Indonesia and Philippines, and East Asia due toseveral disasters in China.
In terms of death per disaster event, earthquake still has the most both for 2022, which is
76 per event and in the past 30 years, which is 1,055.
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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
2.2.3 People Affected (Asia)
The 137 disasters which occurred in 2022 affected a total of 64.23 million Asians. South
Asia has the greatest number of disaster-affected, considering the effects of the disasters
in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. In terms of disaster types, flood affected the most in
Asia in 2022 (45.82 million). Meanwhile, storm, drought, and earthquake also had affecteda relatively large number of Asian populations.
Comparatively, the affected population in 2022 is less than half of the average number ofaffected persons per year for the past 30 years, which is 168.81 million. Meanwhile, East,
South, and Southeast Asia had the most affected population during this period. Similarly,
flood, drought, storm, earthquake, and extreme temperature also has the most effects in
Asia for the past 30 years.

Figure 10 Number of people affected by disaster type in Asia 1992-2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

2.2.4 Economic Losses (Asia)
Based on EM-DAT data, 2022 disasters in Asia caused about USD 48.75 billion indamages. Flood caused the most damage at USD 25.53 billion, followed by earthquake(USD 12.19 billion), drought (USD 7.6 billion), and storm (USD 3.42 billion). The total
amount of damage in Asia in 2022 is relatively lower than the average annual damage forthe past 30 years, which is USD 52.88 billion. Similar to the global trend, high-income
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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
nations, China and Japan, showed the largest amount of damages incurred for the past
30 years, at 36 and 34 percent of the total damage from 1992 to 2021.
For 2022 on the other hand, due to the extent of damage brought by the flood, Pakistan
was second to have the most amount of damages, at USD 15 billion. It was next to China
whose disasters in 2022 caused USD 16 billion worth of damage.

Figure 11 Economic losses by disaster type in Asia 1992-2021 vs 2022 (EMDAT/CRED, 2023)

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

3.

Climate Related Disasters

This section provides an overview of climate-related disasters, particularly those triggeredby drought, extreme temperatures, storms, floods, and wildfire events.
In the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC, extremes (e.g., temperature extremes,
heavy precipitation, pluvial floods, river floods, droughts, and storms) are highlighted as
main Climatic Impact Drivers (CIDs) that affect an element of society or ecosystems.2 As
indicated in the same report, the global greenhouse gas emissions have continued toincrease, rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere haveoccurred. These climatic changes are exacerbated by unsustainable energy use, landuse change, lifestyles, and patterns of consumption/production across regions, between
countries, and among individuals contributing to climate extremes. Since extremes led towidespread adverse impacts and related losses/damages to nature and people, it helps
to know the trend of climate-related disasters.

3.1 Global trend in climate-related disasters
Based on the EM-DAT data, climate-related disasters (drought, flood, and storm) havebeen increasing globally. Floods were the most prevalent among the three with an averageoccurrence of 93 per year, globally, from 1992 until 2021 (Figure 12). There was also anannual average of 70 storms and 13 droughts. From 8 disasters per year in the 1940s, theaverage number of climate-related disasters per year increased to 290 in the recent
decade.

Figure 12 Global trend of climate-related disasters (drought, flood, and storm) 1992-2021 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

As shown in earlier figures, climate-related disasters (i.e., drought, flood, and storm)
account for the highest number of people affected (see Figure 4) and economic losses
2

IPCC, Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers,
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
(see Figure 5) in 2022. Of the 388 disaster occurrences recorded globally in 2022, 308
are climate-related disasters. This includes disasters triggered by drought (23 events),
floods (177), and storms (108). Based on EM-DAT, 2022 disaster figures were generally
higher than those from the last 30 years. From 1992 to 2021, there is an average of 16
droughts, 147 floods, and 100 storms annually. Meanwhile, except for drought, thenumber of people affected by 2022 climate-related disasters was less compared to theaverage number of people affected per year by the same type of disasters between 1992
and 2021. The number of people affected by drought is 80 percent more compared to theannual average from 1992-2021 while people affected by floods and storms were lessthan 40 and 48 percent, respectively.

3.2 Asian trend in climate-related disasters
Similar to the global trend, the number of climate-related disasters in Asian countries from1900 to 2022 is also increasing (Figure 13). A total of 98 climate-related disaster eventsoccurred in 25 countries in 2022, almost 32 percent of the total climate-related disasterevents globally. This is composed of the massive drought in China, 69 floods, including
those in Pakistan and Indonesia, and 28 storms. Relative to past trends, disasters
triggered by droughts and storms occurred less in 2022. However, there were more floods
in 2022 compared to the average number of floods per year from 1992 to 2021. On
average, there were about four droughts, 60 floods, and 41 storms per year in Asia
between 1992 and 2021. Yet, fewer were affected by these disasters in 2022 comparedto the average number of affected populations per year between 1992 and 2021.

Figure 13 Trend of climate-related disasters (drought, flood, and storm) in Asia 1992-2021 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
Based on records, there were also fewer deaths and displaced populations in 2022
compared to the annual average for the past 30 years. Flood remains to be the mostdevastating disaster as it affected and displaced the most population compared to drought
and storms. Meanwhile, storms have the greatest number of average deaths per year
compared to floods and droughts. 2022 figures are almost similar to the 30-year trend. Of
all the disaster the occurred in Asia in 2022, flood is the most frequent (see Figure 8) withthe most devastating impacts showing the highest number of people killed (see Figure 9),affecting more people (see Figure 10), and causing severe economic losses (see Figure
11).

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

4.

COVID-19 Data

Using data from the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Dashboard 3 , thissection presents an overview of the cumulative data on the confirmed number of casesand deaths since WHO’s declaration of the pandemic on 11 March 2020. It also shows
the situation globally and in ADRC member countries.

4.1 Global Situation
While there have been multiple occurrences of upward trends in the number of confirmed
cases since the start of the pandemic, the major upward trends in 2022 were recorded in

Figure 14 Global situation of COVID-19 as of July 2023 (WHO, 2023)

January, March, July, and December. The highest number of confirmed cases for 2022
was reported on 19 December wherein a total of 44.20 million confirmed cases werereported on a single day (Figure 14). Ninety percent of the drastic increase in the number
was from the Western Pacific region and four percent came from Europe (2 percent) andthe Americas (2 percent). A notable increase was also observed in China in December
due to an Omicron subvariant. At least eight other Omicron subvariants have been
identified in 2022. Omicron subvariants are recognized to be transmitted more rapidly
compared to other variants. However, the huge surge of cases in December 2022 wasimmediately followed by a drastic decline of cases. So, in the first quarter of 2023 many
countries started lifting COVID-19 restrictions and slowly opened their borders.

4.2 COVID-19 Situation in ADRC Member Countries
By the end of 2022, China has the greatest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19
cases at 84.93 million. This was followed by India with 44.68 million, Japan with 29.11

3

WHO, COVID-19 Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int/

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
million, the Republic of Korea with 29.06 million, and the Russian Federation with 21.80
million (Figure 15). Several ADRC member countries have more than doubled the numberof confirmed cases from 2021 figures. The highest jump in the number of confirmed cases
was from China whose cumulative number of confirmed cases ballooned from 132,071 asof 31 December 2021 to 84.93 million as of 31 December 2022. Other increasing cases
included the Republic of Korea (from 635,250 to 29.06 million), Bhutan (2,660 to 62,531),
Japan (from 1.73 million to 29.11 million), Singapore (279,405 to 2.21 million), Vietnam(1.73 to 11.53 million), and Thailand (2.22 million to 4.72 million).

Figure 15 COVID-19 cases in ADRC member countries as of 31 December 2022 (WHO, 2023)

Meanwhile, India remained to have the highest number of COVID-related deaths among
ADRC member countries at 530,702 as of 31 December 2022. This was followed by the
Russian Federation (393,712 deaths), Indonesia (160,612), Iran (144,682), Türkiye(101,419), and Philippines (65,397). In terms of the increased number of deaths from2021, China also had the largest increase in the cumulative number of deaths due to
COVID-19 among ADRC member countries. It increased from 5,699 to 52,544. COVIDrelated deaths in Bhutan, Republic of Korea, Japan, and Singapore also increased
drastically by more than 100 percent. Meanwhile, Myanmar, Cambodia, Nepal,
Kazakhstan, and Bangladesh’s number of deaths for 2022 is less than 5 percent of 2021’s.
However, it should be noted that the mentioned figures depend on the policies and thenumber of COVID-19 tests conducted in each country.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Figure 16 ADRC member countries with the highest increase in the number of deaths by 2022

Considering the situation as of December 2022 (Figure 14), COVID-19 restrictions havebeen relaxed in several ADRC member countries, allowing more lenient policies on
movement domestically. As early as 2nd quarter, India and South Korea have alreadylifted some of their domestic restrictions. South Korea also resumed its visa-free travels
as early as March 2022. 4 Japan also removed its cap on foreign travelers and also
resumed its visa-free travels during the last quarter of 2022.5 Towards mid-2023, almost
all countries in Asia opened their borders.

4Choi, S (2022. April 15). South Korea to lift most COVID curbs next week as Omicron wanes.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skorea-lift-most-covid-curbs-next-week-yonhap-2022-04-14/
5Akiyama, H. (2022, September 14). Japan set to announce restart of visa-free tourist travel. Nikkei Asia.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Japan-set-to-announce-restart-of-visa-free-tourist-travel

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Figure 17 COVID-19 Situation in ADRC member countries as of December 2022.

Moreover, with the relaxation of the COVID-19 restrictions, vaccination became a priority
in ADRC member countries. All ADRC member countries already had at least two
vaccines administered by 2022. However, only three countries provided data on the
cumulative number of vaccine doses administered in 2022 – Bhutan, Sri Lanka, andTajikistan. Based on reported data, there are about 3.85 trillion doses of vaccines
administered in four ADRC member countries as of the 1st quarter of 2023 – China,
Mongolia, Philippines, and Turkiye.

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Annex 1
Notes on the Sources of Data
Natural Disaster Data
All disaster data are based on EM-DAT: The Emergency Events Database - Université Catholiquede Louvain (UCL) - CRED, www.emdat.be, Brussels, Belgium. Data set was obtained on 16 May
2023, unless otherwise stated. The presentation of data in Databook 2022 focused only on eightdisaster types: drought, earthquake, extreme temperature, flood, landslide, storm, wildfire, andvolcanic activity.

EM-DAT Criteria:
For a disaster to be entered into the database, at least one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:•Ten (10) or more people reported killed•

Hundred (100) or more people reported affected•

Declaration of a state of emergency•

Call for international assistance

Databook 2022 follows the EM-DAT definitions of “people killed” as persons confirmed as deadand persons missing and presumed dead; “people affected” as the sum of injured, homeless, andaffected requiring immediate assistance during the period of emergency and requiring basic
survival needs such as food, water, shelter, sanitation and immediate medical assistance.
Disaster Terms:
Drought includes an extended period of unusually low precipitation that produces a shortage ofwater for people, animals and plants.
Earthquake includes ground shaking and tsunami.
Epidemic includes bacterial and viral infectious diseases.
Extreme Temperature includes heat wave, cold wave, and extreme winter conditions.
Flood includes general flood, and flash flood.
Insect Infection is pervasive influx and development of insects or parasites affecting humans,
animals, crops and materials.
Landslide includes avalanche, debris, and rockfall.
Storm includes local storm, tropical cyclone, and winter storm.
Volcanic activity means volcanic eruption.
Wildfire includes bush/brush fire, forest fire, and scrub/grassland fire.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022
Classification of EM-DAT:EM-DAT distinguishes between two generic categories for disasters: natural and technological.
The natural disaster category is divided into 5 sub-groups, which in turn cover 15 disaster types
and more than 30 sub-types. The technological disaster category is divided into 3 sub-groups
which in turn cover 15 disaster types, https://www.emdat.be/classification

COVID-19 Data
All COVID-19 data used in the Databook 2022 is based from the World Health Organization
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int/ accessed on 14 July 2023.
Data from the WHO COVID-19 Dashboard are from the official reporting to WHO through regional
offices and also from public websites, not official reported to WHO. Member States select thereporting system they prefer to use and data from different reporting systems. Individual countries,
area and territories may decline to allow country-level disaggregation.

Some ADRC member-countries have limited records of COVID-19-related data in the WHO
COVID-19 Dashboard.

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