Exposure in disaster refers to the situation of people, infrastructure, housing, production capacities, and other tangible human assets located in hazard-prone areas. Exposure is one of the components of disaster risk, along with hazard and vulnerability. Measures of exposure can include the number of people or types of assets in an area, and these can be combined with the specific vulnerability and capacity of the exposed elements to any particular hazard to estimate the quantitative risks associated with that hazard in the area of interest. The extent to which exposed people or economic assets are actually at risk is generally determined by how vulnerable they are, as it is possible to be exposed but not vulnerable. However, increasing evidence suggests that in the case of extreme hazards, the degree of disaster risk is a consequence of exposure more than it is a result of vulnerability. People and economic assets become concentrated in areas exposed to hazards through processes such as population growth, migration, urbanization, and economic development. Previous disasters can drive exposure by forcing people from their lands and to increasingly unsafe areas. Consequently, exposure changes over time and from place to place.

To measure exposure, national statistical agencies, census data, global databases, and remote sensing are used for developing exposure data. To reduce exposure, economic exposure in high-hazard areas is trending.