Philippines tops in natural disasters in 2012

For the second year in a row, the Philippines takes home the unwanted title of “most disaster-affected country”, according to The Citizens’ Disaster Response Center news release Monday.

According to the Philippines-based NGO, the records of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)  showed that 2,360 people were killed due to natural disasters in 2012. Coming in second was China with 771 deaths.

CDRC’s Deputy Executive Director, Carlos Padolina, said that the Philippines’ ranking was due to Typhoon Pablo (Bopha), the largest disaster that occurred in 2012. Pablo killed over 1,000 people in Southern Philippines.

In addition, Padolina said that a total of 471 natural and human-induced disasters occurred in the Philippines in 2012. Compared to the 2011 data, 2012 posed a 9% increase in the number of disaster events recorded by CDRC.

Download CDRC’s complete Philippine Disaster Report 2012 here.

Image/CIA