🌍Global
Series · Climate & Perils
Floods
Four decades of the world's large floods: where the water went, how long it stayed, who it displaced, and why the most frequent natural disaster on Earth remains one of the least insured.
3 episodes
- Source
- Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO)
- Coverage
- 1985 to 2024, global
- Catalogue
- 5,513 flood events
- Peril type
- Hydrological
- Updated
- Feb 2024
Record context · experienced risk
Large floods · 2023
160
last complete year on record
Longest flood on record
419 days
United States of America · 2010
Most displaced by one flood
40,000,000
India · 2004
Countries touched
184
primary country per event
Floods catalogued
5,513
1985–2024 · DFO record
Ask SarahBeta
New episode: A World Under Water
5 Jul 2026
Episodes
1
NEW
The world's large floods since 1985 mapped by footprint and severity, with the yearly rhythm of every event underneath.
2
NEW
The full catalogue: country, dates, duration, deaths, displaced and flooded area for every large flood since 1985, sortable and filterable.
2022
NEW
A supercharged monsoon put roughly a third of Pakistan under water: 33 million people affected, around 30 billion dollars lost, and less than one percent of it insured.