Worldwatch Institute reports that the average sea level around the world has risen 222 millimetres since 1875, which represents an annual rate of 1.7 mm a year.
However, in the end of this period, between 1993 and 2009, the sea level rose 3.0 mm per year.
An estimated 30 per cent of the sea level increase since 1993 is a result of warmer ocean tempeartures that cause the water to expand.
Another 55 per cent of the rise is believed to result from the melting of land-based ice, mainly from glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.