What does the INFORM score measure?

Three things together: exposure to natural and human hazards, how vulnerable the population is to them, and whether institutions could actually cope. That third part is why two countries facing identical earthquake risk can score very differently — capacity to respond is usually what decides the outcome.

Is a low score a promise of safety?

No. It is a country-level average of structural risk over years, not a forecast and not a travel advisory. A low-risk country can have a dangerous region and a bad week. For a decision about a specific place at a specific time, read your government's travel advice, which this does not replace.

Why is risk not part of the livability or cost rankings?

Because folding it in would hide it. If you are comparing rent, you have not asked to have earthquake exposure silently weighted into the answer — and you could not check it if you had. Risk is shown as its own figure and offered as an explicit filter, never as an invisible term inside another score.

INFORM Risk 2026, refreshed 2026-08-31. INFORM registers a release before populating it, so the fetcher probes candidates newest-first and takes the first with actual rows — a hard-coded release id would serve stale scores indefinitely with nothing failing.

Move · Risk

What could go wrong there?

INFORM Risk, from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, across 191 countries: exposure to earthquakes, floods, cyclones, drought and conflict, together with whether institutions could actually respond. Lower is safer.

Lowest risk

#	Country	Risk	Hazard	Band
1	🇸🇬 Singapore	0.7	0.8	very low
2	Liechtenstein	0.9	0.8	very low
3	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	1	0.5	very low
4	🇩🇰 Denmark	1.4	1.5	very low
5	🇸🇨 Seychelles	1.4	1.2	very low
6	🇶🇦 Qatar	1.5	2.3	very low
7	🇮🇸 Iceland	1.6	1.4	very low
8	🇲🇹 Malta	1.6	0.8	very low
9	🇳🇿 New Zealand	1.6	2.4	very low
10	🇧🇭 Bahrain	1.7	2	very low
11	🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis	1.8	1.6	very low
12	🇧🇧 Barbados	1.9	2.5	very low
13	🇨🇭 Switzerland	1.9	1.4	very low
14	🇨🇿 Czechia	1.9	1.2	very low
15	🇪🇪 Estonia	1.9	1.4	very low
16	🇵🇹 Portugal	1.9	2	very low
17	🇫🇮 Finland	2	1.9	very low
18	🇯🇵 Japan	2	5.9	very low
19	🇰🇷 South Korea	2	4.3	very low
20	🇲🇺 Mauritius	2	2	very low
21	🇳🇴 Norway	2	2	very low
22	🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda	2.1	2	low
23	🇱🇹 Lithuania	2.1	1.7	low
24	🇳🇷 Nauru	2.1	0.8	low
25	🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates	2.2	3.5	low

Highest risk

Shown because a ranking that only lists the good end is not a ranking. These are structural scores, not a statement about anyone who lives there.

#	Country	Risk	Band
191	South Sudan	8.3	very high
190	Somalia	8.2	very high
189	🇨🇩 DR Congo	8	very high
188	🇹🇩 Chad	7.8	very high
187	🇸🇩 Sudan	7.8	very high
186	Afghanistan	7.8	very high
185	Yemen	7.7	very high
184	🇸🇾 Syria	7.7	very high
183	🇳🇪 Niger	7.7	very high
182	🇭🇹 Haiti	7.7	very high

Source: INFORM Risk Index (EC Joint Research Centre) (refreshed 2026)

INFORM Risk Index, European Commission Joint Research Centre (https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/inform-index)

INFORM Risk 2026 · JSON

Questions

What does the INFORM score measure?: Three things together: exposure to natural and human hazards, how vulnerable the population is to them, and whether institutions could actually cope. That third part is why two countries facing identical earthquake risk can score very differently — capacity to respond is usually what decides the outcome.
Is a low score a promise of safety?: No. It is a country-level average of structural risk over years, not a forecast and not a travel advisory. A low-risk country can have a dangerous region and a bad week. For a decision about a specific place at a specific time, read your government's travel advice, which this does not replace.
Why is risk not part of the livability or cost rankings?: Because folding it in would hide it. If you are comparing rent, you have not asked to have earthquake exposure silently weighted into the answer — and you could not check it if you had. Risk is shown as its own figure and offered as an explicit filter, never as an invisible term inside another score.
How current is this?: INFORM Risk 2026, refreshed 2026-08-31. INFORM registers a release before populating it, so the fetcher probes candidates newest-first and takes the first with actual rows — a hard-coded release id would serve stale scores indefinitely with nothing failing.

Climate comfort — the other half of "what is it like to be there".
Quality of life vs cost — which deliberately does not include risk.
Everything in Move.

Lowest risk

Highest risk

Questions

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