Despite the saying that nothing is certain but the uncertain, an international study has found that Malta is among the countries least vulnerable to natural disasters.

This stands to reason, given that in the last few decades the islands have not found themselves in any of the dire situations experienced in Bangladesh (extensive flooding), Indonesia (tsunami) or Iran (earthquakes). These countries were found to be the most susceptible to natural disasters by risk advisory firm Maplecroft.

China and India too were found to be at extreme risk of any sort of natural disaster one would care to mention.

On the other hand, Andorra, Bahrain, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Qatar, San Marino and the United Arab Emirates were also among the least vulnerable.

Spanning 30 years, from 1980 to 2010, and covering 229 countries, the study draws on a basket of indicators, including the number and frequency of natural disasters, the number of deaths caused and the toll as a proportion of the country's population. The disasters taken into consideration include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms, flooding, drought, landslides, heat-waves and epidemics.

"Poverty is an important factor in countries where both the frequency and impacts of natural disasters are severe," said environmental analyst Anna Moss.

"Poor infrastructure plus dense overcrowding in high-risk areas like floodplains, river banks, steep slopes and reclaimed land continually result in high casualty figures."

Ms Moss also pointed to experts' warnings of the impact of climate change on rainfall. Disruption of weather patterns is predicted to lead to more frequent and bigger episodes of drought and flood.

"Our research highlights the need for even the wealthiest countries to focus on disaster risk reduction," she said.