GENEVA, 2 November 2018 – The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today called attention to the significant loss of life and economic losses associated with tsunamis, notably for countries bordering the Indian and Pacific Oceans, over the last twenty years. 

A review of available data from tsunami events puts these losses at 251,770 deaths and US$280 billion out of recorded economic losses for earthquakes and tsunamis of US$661.5 billion (1998-2017). 

This compares with 998 deaths and US$2.7 billion in recorded losses from tsunamis over the previous twenty years when total recorded economic losses for earthquakes and tsunamis was US$410.9 billion (1978-1997).

The figures come from the emergency events database maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, based at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. One event, the great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 accounts for over 19,000 deaths and economic losses of US$228 billion.