Demographic data as a tool for adaptation planning

Understanding local and national population composition, characteristics and dynamics is crucial for developing more targeted and effective adaptation policies and actions. Increasingly nuanced understanding of what drives human vulnerability to climate change recognises both physical hazards, which will change over time, and individual and community characteristics that shape how people will be affected by physical hazards and how they will be able to respond to reduce harm. Many of these characteristics can be explored and mapped using demographic data from censuses and other sources.