Highlights from Nepal Earthquake 2015: A Socio-Demographic Impact Study (With Reference to the 14 Most Affected Districts)

The April 25 earthquake in Nepal and the subsequent aftershocks resulted in losses not only in terms of lives and physical infrastructures but also of historical, social, cultural and economic aspects of the country and its population. Thirty-one out of the 75 districts of Nepal were affected by this devastation with 14 of them located in the Central and Western mountains and hills including Kathmandu Valley and categorized by the Government of Nepal as the most affected1. An estimated 5.4 million people live in these 14 districts.

In order to carry out a Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA), the Government of Nepal conducted a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) in May-June 2015 under the broader concept of building back better. While the PDNA assessed the damages of houses and buildings as well as the post-earthquake needs using a globally accepted methodology, it did not really focus on the socio-demographic impacts of the earthquake, that is, how households and communities had been affected, the level of local resilient social capacity to respond and how recovery and reconstruction efforts could be made more responsive.

Against this backdrop, it was decided to carry out this study in order to assess the socio-demographic impacts of the 2015 earthquake, with a focus on cultural diversity pertaining to household settings including caste/ethnicity, population dynamics (fertility, mortality, migration), as well as population size, composition and distribution. The study was meant to contribute to more cost-effective government policies on population dynamics resulting from the post disaster context.