EM-DAT: South Africa Natural Disaster Impacts and Economic Losses

Aggregated natural hazard statistics for South Africa, compiled by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), track disaster frequency and human impact. The data records annual totals for fatalities, affected populations, and economic damages categorized by specific disaster subtypes.

Use Cases

• Correlating 'disaster subtype' with 'total number of deaths' to identify high-risk hazard categories
• Trend analysis of 'economic losses (adjusted)' to measure the long-term financial burden of natural hazards
• Quantifying 'total number of people affected' per year to support national disaster risk reduction planning

Strengths

• Provides inflation-adjusted economic loss figures
• Categorized by specific disaster subtypes
• Standardized metrics from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters

Limitations

• Aggregated annual data lacks specific event-level timestamps or precise coordinates
• Economic loss reporting depends on official government or NGO assessments which may be incomplete for minor events

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

South Africa