Geneva - India, China and other large population countries took the worst-ranking spots on a United Nations list of average number of citizens at risk of natural disaster, the document released Monday showed.

Relative to population size, small islands and countries like Colombia and Myanmar fell into the "high risk" category.

Much of the risk to people living near large bodies of water were thought to be a result of climate change intensifying damaging weather patterns.

Other major risk areas where countries prone to earthquakes like Iran and Pakistan.

Scandinavian and other northern European countries, along with several Gulf states, were deemed to be the safest places on the planet.

The list saw the United States and Haiti, and Iraq and New Zealand, in the same medium risks categories, while the Palestinian territories were considered to be safer than Israel.(dpa)