EM-DAT: China Natural Disaster Impact and Economic Loss Trends

Aggregated natural hazard statistics for China provided by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). The data tracks annual disaster frequency, human fatalities, and economic impacts categorized by specific disaster subtypes. It serves as a longitudinal record of the humanitarian and financial consequences of natural events within the country.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the 'total deaths' trend for specific 'disaster subtype' entries over multiple decades
• Comparing 'economic losses (adjusted)' against 'total number of people affected' to assess disaster severity
• Evaluating the frequency of events using the 'number of disasters' column to identify high-risk years for specific hazards

Strengths

• Sourced from the authoritative Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)
• Includes inflation-adjusted economic loss values for accurate longitudinal financial comparison
• Categorized by specific disaster subtypes rather than broad hazard groups

Limitations

• Aggregated format prevents the analysis of individual disaster event characteristics
• Economic loss data in disaster databases is frequently underreported due to varying local assessment standards
• Excludes man-made, industrial, or conflict-related disasters

Provenance

Source

Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)

Collection Method

Aggregated from the EM-DAT international disaster database

Freshness

Updated as of March 2026.

Geography

China