World's Riskiest Cities: Kolkata Comes 7th

2. Manila, Philippines:

One of the world’s fastest-growing cities, Manila is another city heavily at risk from seismic activity. This city lies on the edge of the Pacific's Ring of Fire, a seismic hot zone that encircles the ocean.

Over the last century, many earthquakes rated above magnitude 6.0 have wracked the volcanic prone Philippines.

A direct hit of tremor from a seismic event would do innumerable damages to this compact city of 15 square miles which is a home to more than 16.8 million people.

Over 13,000 lives are at great risk if such calamity hits this city.

Typhoons and river flooding are also a major risk. As Manila is the main financial and industrial hub of the Philippines, it is the worst city in the world in terms of how much economic damage a natural disaster would cause relative to the country’s national economy.

1. Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan:

The largest metropolitan city in the world, Tokyo/Yokohama is home to over 37 million people, living in extremely densely populated conditions.

 It has emerged as the riskiest city in the world since it is at risk of falling victim to multiple natural disasters like earthquakes and typhoons posing the biggest risk.

Because of the large population living in the area, the potential human toll is by far the highest. It is also the economic center of Japan’s economy, which means any potential catastrophe, would directly affect the country’s economy.

 In 1923, the Great Kanto earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, devastated Tokyo and Yokohama, killing more than 140,000 people. A similar-sized earthquake today could be catastrophic.

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