Volcanic eruptions - death toll worldwide up to 2016

The statistic presents the death toll in individual countries due to the world's major volcanic eruptions from 1900 to 2016*. The volcanic eruption in Cameroon on August 24, 1986 claimed a total of 1,746 deaths.

Volcanic eruptions

A volcanic eruption is defined as a discharge of lava and gas from a volcanic vent or fissure. Volcanoes spew hot, dangerous gases, ash, lava, and rock that are powerfully destructive. The most common consequences of this are population movements, economic loss, affected people and deaths.

Agriculture-based economies are most affected by volcanic eruption. It is unpredictable how much affected an agriculture-based economy will be in a volcanic eruption. The economic loss caused by major volcanic eruptions varies from 1,000 million U.S. during the volcanic eruption in Colombia, November 13, 1995, to 80 million U.S. dollar caused by the volcanic eruption in Japan in 1945.

It is a big tragedy when people are affected by natural disasters. 1,036,065 affected people were counted during the volcanic eruption in the Philippines in June 9, 1991. Most of the states which know about the volcanic activities in their countries have an evacuation plan trying to safe peoples lives. In some cases it is difficult for the people to follow authorities’ instructions caused by unforeseen situations and it comes to high numbers of casualties like in the volcanic eruption in Ecuador in August 14, 2006.

According to the Wold Risk Index from 2013, Qatar, with an index value of 0.1, was the safest country in the world. This index is a complex interplay of natural hazards and social, political and environmental factors.