2020 Australian bushfires hit people in disadvantaged areas hardest

By Donna Lu

The most socio-economically disadvantaged communities in Australia were disproportionately affected by the devastating 2019 to 2020 bushfire season.

Australians in the most disadvantaged 10 per cent of regions were exposed to significantly higher fire risk than those in better-off communities, according to a new analysis.

Sonia Akter at the National University of Singapore and Quentin Grafton at the Australian National University have studied the link between disadvantage and exposure to environmental hazards.

Using publicly available wildfire data from the Australian government, they developed a hazard exposure …