HYPSOGRAPHIC DEMOGRAPHY - THE DISTRIBUTION OF HUMAN-POPULATION BY ALTITUDE

The global distribution of the human population by elevation is quanti fied here. As of 1994, an estimated 1.88 x 10(9) people, or 33.5% of t he world's population, lived within 100 vertical meters of sea level, but only 15.6% of all inhabited land lies below 100 m elevation. The m edian person lived at an elevation of 194 m above sea level. Numbers o f people decreased faster than exponentially with increasing elevation . The integrated population density (IPD, the number of people divided by the land area) within 100 vertical meters of sea level was signifi cantly larger than that of any other range of elevations and represent ed far more people. A significant percentage of the low-elevation popu lation lived at moderate population densities rather than at the highe st densities of central large cities. Assessments of coastal hazards t hat focus only on large cities may substantially underestimate the num ber of people who could be affected.