What can demographers contribute to the study of vulnerability ?

The empirical analysis of the vulnerability of people to recent natural disasters is probably the best way to get an analytical handle on estimating the levels of human vulnerability that could result from the intensifying consequences of climate change in the future. This empirical approach is based on the underlying assumption that the vulnerability to past climate-related disasters, such as flooding, storms, and droughts, is isomorphic to the likely future vulnerability to climate change. While the risks and the exposure levels of human populations to extreme weather events may change across regions as climate systems shift, it is also evident that not all people who are living in the same region that is affected by a natural disaster are equally vulnerable to disaster-related mortality or injury. As is the case for other mortality risks, people tend to be differentially vulnerable according to their age, gender, level of education, occupation, and other social and economic variables. This demographic differential vulnerability has, however, not yet been thoroughly studied. This is where we believe that demographers can make an important contribution to the study of the consequences of climate change and this is the rationale for this special issue of the Vienna Yearbook of Population Research.