A study by British researchers at Southampton University have identified countries that would be most affected in the wake of an asteroid hit on Earth.

The list is based on the number of deaths each developed country would suffer in the midst of such a catastrophic event. On this basis heavily populated nations like China, Japan, the United States and Italy would be the most affected with millions of deaths in each country.

The United States, China, Indonesia, India and Japan would suffer the most in terms of potential number of deaths. Countries whose infrastructure would be most at risk include Canada, the U.S. China, Japan and Sweden.

The data was collected using NASA's Near Earth Object program and compiled with the software called NEOimpactor. The threat of an apocalyptic asteroid hit has become even more prevalent especially after a report that a rock the size of a house came within 7,500 miles of Earth earlier this week, according to a report from The Telegraph.

"The threat of Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity," said Nick Bailey, of the University of Southampton, who developed the NEOimpactor software. He added that the consequences from such an impact for human populations and infrastructures could be enormous.

Bailey added that the Tunguska asteroid impact should serve as an example to nations that such an impact could wreak havoc on populated areas. The asteroid impact flattened the unpopulated area around the forest.

"Our results highlight those countries that face the greatest risk from this most global of natural hazards and thus indicate which nations need to be involved in mitigating the threat."

Jupiter's gravitational field has somewhat limited Earth's exposure to space rocks but this doesn't mean that one lone asteroid could escape and hit Earth again like it did 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs became extinct.

The countries most at risk are:

China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the U.S, the Philippines, Italy, Britain, Brazil, Nigeria