According to the 2022 World Risk Index, Turkey is only reaching a mediocre score for disaster resilience. The country that was ravaged by devastating earthquakes claiming thousands of lives this week is attested a “high” vulnerability in the most recent report released by the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany.

The vulnerability score is further broken down into three categories – social inequality and lack of development, insufficient political stability, health care and infrastructure as well as lack of progress. Especially in the second category, Turkey was rated as having a “very high” vulnerability to natural disasters. On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that there had been some delays in the country’s initial response to the quake.

Nations that like Turkey experience many earthquakes – for example China, Japan, the U.S. or Iran – are all rated as highly exposed to natural disaster by the World Risk Index. Syria is labeled as having a “high” risk of natural catastrophe. While developed nations Japan and the U.S. score lowest for vulnerability, China is also considered relatively well prepared. Turkey’s overall vulnerability, however, stands at 29.58 points, more severe than that of Iran (27.34 points). This is despite the fact that the country ranks far ahead of Iran on the Human Development Index. Other nations with very high disaster risk which are less developed but rated better prepared than Turkey included Nicaragua, Bolivia, Vietnam, Mexico and Honduras.

Indonesia’s, India’s and the Philippines’ vulnerability received worse ratings than Turkey’s. Syria – ranked among the 25 percent of the least developed countries in the world – was ranked as having “very high” vulnerability throughout.