Dataset

The EM-DAT Emergency Events Database Archive

Overview

The EM-DAT Emergency Events Database Archive, or EM-DAT Archive, preserves official archived versions of the actively maintained EM-DAT database (www.emdat.be) to adhere with FAIR principles and support open and reproducible science while using the EM-DAT data. This archive features a comprehensive dataset with the following specifications:

Downloaded from the EM-DAT Public Portal on December 4, 2024,
Including global disaster occurrence and impact records spanning 1900-2023,
Validated with the EM-TEST testing framework v2024.12.0,
Including a PDF archive of the EM-DAT Official Documentation (data and protocol description, known issues, tutorial, and more),
Released under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

About the EM-DAT Project

EM-DAT is a global disaster database project started in 1988 with the initial support of the World Health Organization and the Belgian government. Since 1999, EM-DAT has been supported by the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). EM-DAT collects data on disaster occurrences in countries and their human and economic impact from 1900 onwards.

Data and Resources

Authors

Delforge, Damien
Wathelet, Valentin
Below, Regina
Lanfredi Sofia, Cinzia
Tonnelier, Margo
van Loenhout, Joris A.F
Speybroek, Niko

Publications

Delforge, D., Wathelet, V., Below, R., Lanfredi Sofia, C., Tonnelier, M., van Loenhout, J. A. F. & Speybroeck, N.: EM-DAT: The Emergency Events Database, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 105509, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105509, 2025.
Delforge, D., & Wathelet, V. (2024). EM-TEST: A Testing Framework for the EM-DAT Data (2024.12.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14275843

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Additional Info

Field	Value
Contact	Regina Below
Publisher	Open Data @ UCLouvain
Spatial Coverage
Themes	Environment Health Population and society

Source metadata