Disaster risk in Europe by country

Which countries are most at risk from disasters? The European Commission's INFORM Risk Index scores each country in Europe from 0 to 10 on the hazards it is exposed to, how vulnerable its people are, and how well it can cope. This page ranks 40 countries using INFORM Risk Index Mid 2026 (version 0.7.3, released 1 September 2026).

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INFORM measures the risk of a humanitarian crisis: that a disaster or conflict overwhelms a country and it needs outside help. Its overall score counts conflict as well as natural hazards, and it is high where people are poor and services are weak. So the overall ranking is not a list of the places with the most earthquakes or storms. For that, use the Natural hazard column, which is INFORM's own score for natural hazards alone.

This is a comparison between countries, not a forecast. A low score still means some risk. For warnings and decisions, follow the national disaster agency.

By region

Regions are INFORM's own groups (UN geographical regions).

Most exposed to natural hazards in Europe

Ranked by INFORM's Natural hazard score (earthquake, river flood, tsunami, tropical cyclone, coastal flood, drought and epidemic), world rank of 191.

  1. Albania has a natural hazard score of 5.4 (High), joint 32nd of 191. Highest: Earthquake 8.3, Coastal flood 7.4, Tsunami 6.8. Overall INFORM Risk 3.1 (Low), ranked joint 112th, with Vulnerability 2.4 and Lack of Coping Capacity 3.3.
  2. Russia has a natural hazard score of 5.1 (High), joint 39th of 191. Highest: River Flood 8.4, Drought 5.8, Coastal flood 5.3. Overall INFORM Risk 3.8 (Medium), ranked joint 88th, with Vulnerability 2.2 and Lack of Coping Capacity 2.9.
  3. Netherlands has a natural hazard score of 5.1 (High), joint 39th of 191. Highest: Coastal flood 10.0, River Flood 8.6, Epidemic 3.0. Overall INFORM Risk 2.5 (Low), ranked joint 145th, with Vulnerability 2.8 and Lack of Coping Capacity 1.8.
  4. Italy has a natural hazard score of 4.9 (High), 45th of 191. Highest: Earthquake 7.7, Coastal flood 6.5, River Flood 6.2. Overall INFORM Risk 3.1 (Low), ranked joint 112th, with Vulnerability 2.8 and Lack of Coping Capacity 3.4.
  5. Greece has a natural hazard score of 4.7 (Medium), joint 50th of 191. Highest: Earthquake 8.0, Tsunami 7.2, Coastal flood 5.0. Overall INFORM Risk 2.9 (Low), ranked joint 122nd, with Vulnerability 2.7 and Lack of Coping Capacity 3.0.

Highest overall INFORM Risk in Europe

Ranked by the overall INFORM Risk, which combines Hazard & Exposure (natural and human), Vulnerability and Lack of Coping Capacity. Equal scores share a rank.

  1. Ukraine ranks joint 37th of 191 with an INFORM Risk of 5.7 (High). Its highest dimension is Hazard & Exposure at 8.1. Its natural hazard score is 3.2 (highest: River Flood 6.1, Coastal flood 5.0).
  2. Moldova ranks joint 84th of 191 with an INFORM Risk of 3.9 (Medium). Its highest dimension is Lack of Coping Capacity at 5.0. Its natural hazard score is 3.4 (highest: Earthquake 6.0, Drought 5.6).
  3. Russia ranks joint 88th of 191 with an INFORM Risk of 3.8 (Medium). Its highest dimension is Hazard & Exposure at 8.5. Its natural hazard score is 5.1 (highest: River Flood 8.4, Drought 5.8).
  4. Serbia ranks joint 100th of 191 with an INFORM Risk of 3.4 (Low). Its highest dimension is Lack of Coping Capacity at 4.3. Its natural hazard score is 3.3 (highest: River Flood 7.7, Earthquake 5.3).
  5. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranks joint 105th of 191 with an INFORM Risk of 3.3 (Low). Its highest dimension is Lack of Coping Capacity at 4.6. Its natural hazard score is 2.9 (highest: Earthquake 6.0, River Flood 5.9).

All 40 countries in Europe

Scores from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Select a column heading to sort by it; select it again to reverse. The overall class is INFORM's; classes for the dimensions use INFORM's published thresholds.

World rank Country INFORM Risk Hazard & Exposure Natural hazard Vulnerability Lack of Coping Capacity
=37 Ukraine 5.7
High		 8.1 3.2
#126
 6.1 3.8
=84 Moldova 3.9
Medium		 2.9 3.4
#114
 4.2 5.0
=88 Russia 3.8
Medium		 8.5 5.1
#39
 2.2 2.9
=100 Serbia 3.4
Low		 2.7 3.3
#119
 3.5 4.3
=105 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.3
Low		 2.2 2.9
#144
 3.7 4.6
=112 Albania 3.1
Low		 3.6 5.4
#32
 2.4 3.3
=112 Italy 3.1
Low		 3.0 4.9
#45
 2.8 3.4
=122 Greece 2.9
Low		 3.0 4.7
#50
 2.7 3.0
=128 Romania 2.8
Low		 2.7 3.4
#114
 2.8 2.8
=128 Slovakia 2.8
Low		 1.9 2.4
#164
 2.9 4.1
=133 Bulgaria 2.7
Low		 2.1 3.2
#126
 3.0 3.0
=133 Sweden 2.7
Low		 2.1 2.5
#159
 2.6 3.5
=136 Belgium 2.6
Low		 2.1 3.4
#114
 2.7 3.1
=136 France 2.6
Low		 2.8 4.0
#79
 3.1 2.1
=136 Latvia 2.6
Low		 1.8 2.4
#164
 4.0 2.5
=136 Montenegro 2.6
Low		 2.3 3.2
#126
 3.1 2.5
=136 North Macedonia 2.6
Low		 2.0 2.9
#144
 2.3 4.0
=145 Austria 2.5
Low		 1.6 2.5
#159
 3.2 2.9
=145 Croatia 2.5
Low		 2.8 4.4
#65
 2.1 2.8
=145 Netherlands 2.5
Low		 3.2 5.1
#39
 2.8 1.8
=145 Spain 2.5
Low		 2.3 3.7
#99
 3.2 2.2
=152 Belarus 2.4
Low		 2.1 1.8
#179
 2.2 3.0
=152 Germany 2.4
Low		 2.5 4.0
#79
 3.9 1.4
=152 Poland 2.4
Low		 2.0 2.9
#144
 3.6 2.0
=158 Ireland 2.3
Very Low		 1.4 2.3
#168
 2.8 3.1
=163 Hungary 2.2
Very Low		 1.8 2.7
#154
 2.3 2.6
=163 United Kingdom 2.2
Very Low		 2.3 3.5
#107
 3.0 1.6
=167 Lithuania 2.1
Very Low		 1.7 2.2
#172
 2.4 2.3
=170 Finland 2.0
Very Low		 1.9 2.5
#159
 2.4 1.8
=170 Norway 2.0
Very Low		 2.0 2.8
#149
 2.5 1.6
=175 Czechia 1.9
Very Low		 1.2 1.6
#181
 3.4 1.6
=175 Estonia 1.9
Very Low		 1.4 1.6
#181
 3.4 1.5
=175 Portugal 1.9
Very Low		 1.9 3.1
#134
 2.1 1.7
=175 Slovenia 1.9
Very Low		 2.0 3.2
#126
 1.4 2.5
=175 Switzerland 1.9
Very Low		 1.4 2.3
#168
 3.0 1.6
=183 Iceland 1.6
Very Low		 1.4 2.5
#159
 1.7 1.7
=183 Malta 1.6
Very Low		 0.8 1.6
#181
 1.8 2.7
=186 Denmark 1.5
Very Low		 1.5 2.2
#172
 2.5 0.9
189 Luxembourg 1.0
Very Low		 0.5 0.9
#191
 2.1 1.1
190 Liechtenstein 0.9
Very Low		 0.8 1.6
#181
 1.0 1.0

"=" marks a rank shared with another country. The small number under the natural hazard score is that country's world rank on natural hazards (computed here from INFORM's scores).

How INFORM works

INFORM scores three dimensions, each from 0 to 10:

  • Hazard & Exposure: the events that could happen and the people exposed to them. It has two categories: Natural (earthquake, river flood, tsunami, tropical cyclone, coastal flood, drought and epidemic) and Human (conflict).
  • Vulnerability: how susceptible people are to harm, whatever the hazard (socio-economic vulnerability and vulnerable groups).
  • Lack of Coping Capacity: the lack of institutions and infrastructure to manage a disaster.

The overall INFORM Risk multiplies them: Risk = (Hazard & Exposure × Vulnerability × Lack of Coping Capacity)1/3. Because it is multiplicative, the risk is zero if any one dimension is zero, and a country very exposed to hazards can still have a low overall risk when it is well prepared. INFORM puts each score into five classes, from Very Low to Very High. Full detail: INFORM Risk methodology.

JRC's note on this release: “Score Comparability Notice (September 2026):Changes in the September 2026 INFORM Risk midterm release are driven entirely by external input data updates; methodology and historical series are unchanged. Due to the unusually large scale of input data changes, direct comparisons with the March 2026 release should be made with caution. Figures represent a standalone snapshot. Refer to source documentation for detailed information on source data updates.”

Source and citation

Data: INFORM Risk Index, European Commission Joint Research Centre, INFORM Risk Index Mid 2026 (version 0.7.3, released 1 September 2026), from the results and data page.

Citation, as INFORM asks:

INFORM. 2026. INFORM Risk Index midterm 2026. https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/inform-index. INFORM is a collaboration of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Risk, Early Warning and Preparedness and the European Commission. The European Commission Joint Research Centre is the scientific lead of INFORM.

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Reuse is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. Changes made here: scores are shown to one decimal as published; the region filter, sorting, the dimension classes (from INFORM's thresholds) and the natural hazard ranks are this site's. JRC provides the data “as is”.

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