Amid rising economic damage, why is extreme weather killing fewer people?

Extreme weather-related events over the last half century have caused trillions of dollars of economic damage worldwide. According to a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report, financial losses from floods, storms and wildfires have increased since 1970.

But the human death toll has dropped dramatically. Fewer people are now dying owing to better early warning systems and improved disaster management. 22,608 people were reported dead between 2019 and 2021, much less than in earlier years.

But the lower death toll has nothing to do with extreme weather-related events becoming less severe or frequent. In fact, the number of such disasters has increased five-fold since the 1970s, according to the WMO.

But over the same period, the economic damage from these events has risen by a factor of eight and now totals $4.3 trillion, the latest data from the UN’s climate and weather body reveals. With the US at the top, developed countries seem to have faced the brunt of financial losses.

Nevertheless, when the size of their economies is considered, the least developed countries and small island states encountered much higher financial losses, the WMO said.

The agency reports 11,778 disasters between 1970 and 2021 in its latest Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes. Out of the two million deaths those events caused, nine out of ten were in developing countries.