# Are natural disaster death tolls higher? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443 "2005-10-09T21:32:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/1 "2005-10-09T21:32:28Z")
Ever since the Earthquake in Iran on December 26, 2003 I’ve become increasingly aware of natural disasters with high death tolls. Am I just more aware and informed now, or is this statistically normal for the population? I just read about a Mayan landslide that took out a Mayan village of about 1200 because of Hurricane Stan, the same weekend as that huge quake in Pakistan/India/Afghanistan. Erek ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/2 "2005-10-09T21:49:06Z")
Higher than when? Death tolls in many areas would be expected to be higher during the past century than earlier simply because of the large increase in global population, especially in the Third World where housing is less adequate to stand up to disasters. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/3 "2005-10-09T22:34:06Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Higher than when? Death tolls in many areas would be expected to be higher during the past century than earlier simply because of the large increase in global population, especially in the Third World where housing is less adequate to stand up to disasters. Say, higher than a decade prior, and higher than the decade before that I suppose. I’m not looking for any causes here, just to see how my perception is impacting my knowledge of the reality of the situation. I’m wonder proportionally as well. It just seems like natural disasters have claimed nearly 200,000 lives in less than two years. That seems like a fairly significant percentage. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/4 "2005-10-09T22:41:01Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Say, higher than a decade prior, and higher than the decade before that I suppose. I’m not looking for any causes here, just to see how my perception is impacting my knowledge of the reality of the situation. > > I’m wonder proportionally as well. It just seems like natural disasters have claimed nearly 200,000 lives in less than two years. That seems like a fairly significant percentage. [Most Recent Natural Disasters Were Not the Century’s Worst](http://geography.about.com/library/misc/blcenturyworst.htm) ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/5 "2005-10-09T23:21:12Z")
Ok, well that answers that. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/6 "2005-10-11T19:01:51Z")
With the recent earthquake and landslides, are we _still_ about average for death tolls this year? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-natural-disaster-death-tolls-higher/325443/7 "2005-10-11T19:41:11Z")
For perspective: India has a population of a billion. The country has an annual death rate of around 9 per 1000. That’s 9 million people dead each year. A natural disaster would have a hard time making a dent in that number.