Atlas Magazine presents below the risks incurred by 56 cities in the Africa Middle East (AME) region. In descending order, this zone is dominated by geopolitical and security-related risks, economic and financial risks, and natural catastrophes.
Among the geopolitical and security-related risks, interstate conflicts come in first position, followed by civil wars and terrorism. Regarding economic and financial risks, crashes stand as the biggest threat with potential annual loss of 10.65 billion USD.
Unlike threats affecting cities in other continents, earthquakes, floods and drought stand only as the third threat in the Africa Middle East region.
Middle Eastern cities are more exposed to economic threats (financial crashes and sovereign defaults) than African cities.
Almost half of the cities in the area under study have "very low" resilience to the threats they are exposed to. In this respect, these AME region cities have the lowest rating among the 279 cities studied around the world.
Africa and Middle East: Top 10 cities whose economic growth is threatened
In billions USD| Ranking | City | Overall ranking | Annual amount of potential loss | Costliest risks |
|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 5 | 12.74 | Interstate conflicts |
| 2 | Baghdad | 10 | 7.91 | Interstate conflicts |
| 3 | Cairo | 19 | 5.74 | Interstate conflicts |
| 4 | Tehran | 23 | 5.53 | Interstate conflicts |
| 5 | Riyadh | 30 | 4.77 | Interstate conflicts |
| 6 | Lagos | 32 | 4.42 | Civil conflits |
| 7 | Tel Aviv | 33 | 4.09 | Interstate conflicts |
| 8 | Khartoum | 40 | 3.79 | Interstate conflicts |
| 9 | Djeddah | 44 | 3.40 | Interstate conflicts |
| 10 | Ankara | 46 | 3.30 | Interstate conflicts |
Africa and Middle East region: Top 10 threats to economic growth
In billions USD| Ranking | Threat | Annual amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Interstate conflicts | 38.74 |
| 2 | Civil conflits | 15.67 |
| 3 | Marketcrashes | 10.65 |
| 4 | Earthquakes | 8.14 |
| 5 | Sovereign defaults | 5.92 |
| 6 | Terrorism | 4.83 |
| 7 | Pandemics | 4.80 |
| 8 | Social unrest | 2.19 |
| 9 | Floods | 1.94 |
| 10 | Drought | 0.93 |
Africa and Middle East Zone: Top 5 cities most exposed to natural catastrophes
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 123 |
| 2 | Tehran | 80 |
| 3 | Lagos | 75 |
| 4 | Tel Aviv | 74 |
| 5 | Cairo | 57 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 2146 |
| 2 | Tehran | 1532 |
| 3 | Abu Dhabi | 595 |
| 4 | Izmir | 574 |
| 5 | Dubaï | 448 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Nairobi | 76 |
| 2 | Douala | 45 |
| 3 | Sanaa | 19 |
| 4 | Addis-Ababa | 16 |
| 5 | Lagos | 16 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 456 |
| 2 | Ankara | 264 |
| 3 | Tel Aviv | 228 |
| 4 | Tehran | 115 |
| 5 | Kuwait | 106 |
Africa and Middle East region: Top 5 cities most exposed to geopolitical and security risks
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Baghdad | 4366 |
| 2 | Riyadh | 3391 |
| 3 | Cairo | 3139 |
| 4 | Istanbul | 2606 |
| 5 | Khartoum | 2425 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Lagos | 2071 |
| 2 | Istanbul | 1989 |
| 3 | Baghdad | 1368 |
| 4 | Tel Aviv | 897 |
| 5 | Cairo | 884 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 708 |
| 2 | Ankara | 205 |
| 3 | Lagos | 182 |
| 4 | Baghdad | 126 |
| 5 | Izmir | 105 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Baghdad | 1620 |
| 2 | Istanbul | 569 |
| 3 | Lagos | 437 |
| 4 | Cairo | 221 |
| 5 | Tehran | 168 |
Africa and Middle East region: Top 5 cities most exposed to health threats
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Istanbul | 560 |
| 2 | Lagos | 265 |
| 3 | Cairo | 225 |
| 4 | Riyadh | 205 |
| 5 | Abu Dhabi | 195 |
In millions USD| Ranking | City | Amount of potential loss |
|---|
| 1 | Lagos | 100 |
| 2 | Cairo | 42 |
| 3 | Khartoum | 38 |
| 4 | Istanbul | 32 |
| 5 | Kano | 30 |
