Frequency and mortality of building collapses
The paper deals with the determination of collapse frequencies of buildings for different countries and regions. First, either direct data of the building stock are collected and building stocks are estimated by parameters specific for each country respectively. The collapse events are taken from the daily press or from literature. In addition to the calculation of the collapse frequencies, the mortalities due to building collapses are also determined. Again, data from the daily press or literature are used for this purpose. In addition, a brief discussion of the causes of building collapses is given. For industrialized countries, the annual collapse frequency is 2.4 × 10–7 per year and for developing countries 4.7 × 10–6 per year. Mortality ranges from 9.8 × 10–8 per year for developed countries and 1.5 × 10–6 per year for developing countries. The causes of building collapses in developing countries, and thus in the majority of collapses, are inadequate skills of those involved.