This publication reports on the human and economic losses caused by natural disasters in 2008 with figures based on the EM-DAT database with comparisons to previous years. It asserts that although fewer disasters occurred in 2008, events had a larger impact than usual on human settlements. In 2008 once again, large numbers of persons were affected by a few natural disasters. The earthquake and severe winter conditions in China affected a total of 122 million people. Many other people were affected by droughts in Asia (12 million) and Africa (14 million) and severe weather conditions in the U.S. in May and June 2008 (11 million).