Climate Risk Index 2025: Who Was Hit the Hardest by Global Disasters?

The German environmental NGO Germanwatch has released its latest Climate Risk Index 2025. The report reveals that from 1993 to 2022, climate-related disasters caused over 650,000 deaths and an estimated $3.8 trillion in damages worldwide.

Methodology: Six Dimensions of Disaster

The CRI is based on six key indicators: total deaths, number of affected individuals, and economic losses — both absolute and relative. Data sources include EM-DAT, IPCC, and national statistical agencies. Still, Germanwatch acknowledges that many climate disasters go underreported or are not captured promptly in official databases.

Most Vulnerable Countries (1993–2022)

The top ten most affected countries over the past three decades include Dominica, China, Honduras, Myanmar, Italy, India, Greece, Spain, Vanuatu, and the Philippines.

Dominica ranks first due to Hurricane Maria (2017), which caused damages worth 270% of the nation’s GDP.

China follows with $706 billion in losses and 42,000 deaths from floods, typhoons, droughts, and heatwaves.

Honduras is third, largely due to Hurricane Mitch (1998), which wiped out 70% of its infrastructure and caused over 14,000 fatalities.

Southern European countries — Italy, Greece, and Spain — also made the top 10. Italy alone saw over 38,000 deaths and $60 billion in damages during this period.

Deadliest Disasters by Type

Over the past 30 years:

Drought caused the most deaths.

Floods ranked second.

Extreme heat and wildfires followed closely.

Snapshot: 2022 in Climate Extremes

The year 2022 was particularly destructive:

Pakistan was the worst-hit country, losing 1,700 lives and incurring $15 billion in damages from monsoon floods.

Italy saw over 18,000 heat-related deaths, while Spain and Greece suffered 11,000 and 3,000 deaths, respectively.

Hurricane Ian cost the U.S. $104 billion, the highest single-event loss of the year.

Most common disasters: heatwaves, floods, droughts, storms, and wildfires. Heat was the deadliest, killing 61,782 people in 2022 alone.

Economic Losses (2022)

Storms led to $137.4 billion in damages (62% of the total).

Floods: $46.8 billion.

Droughts: $35.6 billion.

Wildfires: over $1 billion.

Inequality in Impact

While 2022 saw a sharp rise in climate losses in high-income countries, the long-term data show low-income nations are consistently more vulnerable due to weak infrastructure and limited resources. According to the IPCC, mortality in vulnerable regions is 15 times higher than in more resilient nations.

Only 9% of necessary data is submitted from low-income countries, creating a major blind spot in global assessments.

Urgent Adaptation Needed

Germanwatch emphasizes:

Expansion of early warning systems

Ending fossil fuel subsidies

Scaling climate finance to at least $200–400 billion annually

Without substantial investment in low-carbon infrastructure and climate resilience, risks will continue to grow across all regions — regardless of GDP.