Each year, on average, almost 250 million people are affected by ‘natural’ disasters. In a typical year between 1998 and 2007, 98 per cent of them suffered from climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods rather than, for example, devastating but relatively rare events such as earthquakes. New research for this report projects that by 2015, this could grow by more than 50 per cent to an average of over 375 million people affected by climate-related disasters each year. Any such projection is not an exact science, but what is clear is that substantially more people may be affected by disasters in the very near future, as climate change and environmental mismanagement create a proliferation of droughts, floods and other disasters. And more people will be vulnerable to them because of their poverty or location.