Frequency of Man‐Made Disasters in the 20 th Century

This paper analyses two disaster databases maintained by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and by Emergency Management Australia. The objective is to quantify the frequency, nature and changes in man‐made disasters in industrialised countries during the past century. The analysis shows an exponential growth in disaster frequency, largely due to an increase in traditional hazards such as fires and explosions, rather than from new technologies. Although the number of incidents has grown, this has been offset by a decline in fatalities per incident. An important implication of these results is that regulatory oversight and internal corporate governance processes are inadequate to ensure effective management of modern industrial risks.