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Fact file: Florida hurricane insurance

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June 2020

  • Six of the 10 costliest hurricanes in U.S. history have impacted Florida. Three of these storms occurred within just two years: 2004 and 2005. (See chart.)
  • The costliest hurricane, based on insured property losses to Florida, was 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. It caused $25.9 billion in damage to Florida and Louisiana (in 2019 dollars). (See chart.)
  • Standard homeowners policies typically do not cover flood damage. Flood insurance is covered by the federally managed National Flood Insurance Program, but private flood insurance is becoming increasingly available.
  • Florida leads the nation in the number of flood policies, according to the National Flood Insurance Program, with about 1.8 million policies in force in 2019.
  • About 98 percent of the total population of Florida lives in one of the coastal counties. The number of people living in coastal areas in Florida increased by 4.2 million, or 27 percent, from 15.6 million in 2000 to 19.8 million in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • In Florida, 2.9 million single-family homes were at risk in 2020 for storm surge damage from hurricanes up to Category 5 strength, according to CoreLogic, Inc. These homes would cost $581 billion to completely rebuild, including labor and materials.
  • After its establishment in 2002, when the state passed legislation combining two separate high-risk insurance pools known as the Florida Windstorm Underwriting Association and the Florida Residential Property & Casualty Joint Underwriting Association, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. (CPIC) experienced exponential growth. As a result, Florida Citizens has evolved from a market of last resort to the state’s largest property insurer.
  • Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp. provides multiperil and wind-only insurance coverage to Florida homeowners, commercial residential and commercial business property owners.
  • Direct homeowners insurance premiums in Florida written by Citizens was $490.9 million in 2018 down from $795 million in 2014.
  • Citizens was the state’s fourth leading homeowners insurer in 2018, with a market share of 5.11 percent, down from 9.1 percent in 2014.
  • Florida Citizens had 346,227 policies as of March 31, 2020.

Top 10 Writers Of Commercial Insurance In Florida By Direct Premiums Written, 2019 (1)

Rank Group/company Direct premiums written ($000) Market share
1 Assurant $2,863,803 11.2%
2 Chubb 1,083,356 4.2
3 Progressive 1,047,581 4.1
4 American International Group (AIG) 916,379 3.6
5 Zurich 857,933 3.4
6 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 830,821 3.3
7 Travelers Companies Inc. 804,216 3.2
8 Liberty Mutual 772,981 3.0
9 CNA 653,247 2.6
10 Great American Insurance 630,262 2.5

(1) Before reinsurance transactions.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

Top 10 Writers Of Homeowners Insurance In Florida By Direct Premiums Written, 2019 (1)

Rank Group/company Direct premiums written ($000) Market share
1 Universal Insurance Holdings Inc. $989,983 9.8%
2 State Farm 641,797 6.4
3 Tower Hill 580,482 5.8
4 Citizens Property Insurance Corp. 520,338 5.2
5 USAA 398,595 4.0
6 FEDNAT 392,612 3.9
7 UPC Insurance 387,129 3.8
8 Progressive 373,747 3.7
9 Heritage Insurance 372,415 3.7
10 Security First Insurance Co. 352,908 3.5

(1) Before reinsurance transactions.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

Top 10 Writers Of Private Passenger Auto Insurance In Florida By Direct Premiums Written, 2019 (1)

Rank Group/company Direct premiums written ($000) Market share
1 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. $5,314,424 25.7%
2 Progressive 4,217,321 20.4
3 State Farm 2,852,377 13.8
4 Allstate Corp. 1,939,734 9.4
5 USAA Insurance Group 1,481,927 7.2
6 Liberty Mutual 568,158 2.7
7 Travelers Companies Inc. 432,002 2.1
8 Kemper Corp. 417,175 2.0
9 National General Holdings Corp. 394,955 1.9
10 Farmers Insurance Group 356,747 1.7

(1) Before reinsurance transactions.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

Top 10 Costliest Hurricanes In The United States (1)

      Estimated insured loss
Rank Year Hurricane Dollars when occurred In 2024 dollars (2)
1 2005 Hurricane Katrina $65,000 $104,471
2 2022 Hurricane Ian 54,000 57,231
3 2021 Hurricane Ida 36,000 41,540
4 2012 Hurricane Sandy 30,000 40,939
5 2017 Hurricane Harvey 30,000 38,571
6 2017 Hurricane Irma 30,050 38,432
7 2017 Hurricane Maria 29,511 37,743
8 1992 Hurricane Andrew 16,000 35,845
9 2008 Hurricane Ike 18,200 26,259
10 2024 Hurricane Milton 20,000 20,000

(1) Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and losses sustained by private insurers and government-sponsored programs such as the National Flood Insurance Program. Subject to change as loss estimates are further developed. As of January 2025.
(2) Adjusted for inflation by Aon using the U.S. Consumer Price Index.

Source: Aon.

View Archived Tables

Estimated Insured Losses For The Top 10 Historical Hurricanes Based On Current Exposures (1)

Rank Date Event Category 2015 insured loss
1 Sep. 18, 1926 Great Miami Hurricane 4 $119
2 Sep. 17, 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane 4 72
3 Sep. 17, 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane 3 60
4 Aug. 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina 3 58
5 Sep. 9, 1965 Hurricane Betsy 4 53
6 Aug. 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew 5 52
7 Sep. 10, 1960 Hurricane Donna 4 46
8 Sep. 21, 1938 The Great New England Hurricane 3 44
9 Sep. 9, 1900 Galveston Hurricane 4 44
10 Sep. 15, 1950 Hurricane Easy 2 28

(1) Modeled loss to property, contents and business interruption and additional living expenses for residential, mobile home, commercial and auto exposures as of end-2015. Losses include demand surge.

Source: AIR Worldwide Corporation.

View Archived Tables

Storm Surge Risk By State By Number Of Single-Family Homes and Reconstruction Value, 2019 (1)

    Number of single-family homes at risk by storm category (2)
Rank State Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5
1 Florida  358,902 1,085,288 1,788,071 2,338,348 2,830,201
2 Louisiana  74,792 213,442 637,354 765,612 839,321
3 Texas  40,633 121,010 259,993 393,837 555,569
4 New Jersey  94,083 276,872 381,551 471,143 (3)
5 New York  76,797 227,962 351,783 467,398 (3)
6 Virginia  23,321 89,387 243,401 365,134 409,259
7 South Carolina  37,155 130,565 216,551 304,442 359,024
8 North Carolina  33,200 97,158 163,632 213,922 264,264
9 Massachusetts  9,310 45,042 101,171 157,311 (3)
10 Georgia  9,863 54,777 112,747 151,627 163,191
11 Maryland  16,473 58,141 96,774 124,684 (3)
12 Mississippi  9,005 29,381 60,167 90,360 102,199
13 Pennsylvania  924 21,406 58,659 85,480 (3)
14 Connecticut  6,874 29,194 47,292 68,022 (3)
15 Alabama  5,777 15,596 29,234 41,164 54,586
16 Delaware  11,027 31,329 49,517 67,320 (3)
17 Rhode Island  1,391 7,423 16,513 25,354 (3)
18 Maine  5,846 8,300 12,336 18,824 (3)
19 New Hampshire  186 3,999 7,069 9,315 (3)
  Total homes potentially affected 815,559 2,546,272 4,633,815 6,158,577 7,071,745
    Reconstruction cost value of single-family homes at risk (4) ($ millions)
Rank State Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5
1 Florida $73,255.3 $225,758.2 $372,102.5 $482,986.8 $581,641.5
2 New York  30,075.0 94,513.9 145,839.3 194,358.1 (3)
3 Louisiana  16,343.1 47,945.9 151,667.9 182,479.3 200,785.2
4 New Jersey  27,035.0 84,599.0 119,106.5 149,676.0 (3)
5 Texas  7,399.5 22,434.1 50,758.8 80,141.0 112,087.7
6 Virginia  6,046.8 22,878.8 58,270.3 87,017.7 98,744.9
7 South Carolina  10,377.6 34,543.8 54,837.2 74,049.4 85,214.8
8 North Carolina  7,094.4 20,928.6 35,570.1 46,843.7 57,973.4
9 Massachusetts  2,381.6 12,625.7 28,897.8 46,442.6 (3)
10 Georgia  2,980.9 14,662.9 27,079.1 35,130.6 37,325.4
11 Maryland  4,046.8 13,834.2 23,084.4 29,768.4 (3)
12 Connecticut  2,429.5 9,913.0 15,895.6 22,659.2 (3)
13 Mississippi  1,947.1 6,186.9 12,375.8 18,241.7 20,554.7
14 Pennsylvania  214.4 5,013.7 14,187.6 20,823.0 (3)
15 Delaware  3,159.6 8,797.1 14,026.2 19,121.3 (3)
16 Alabama  1,143.4 2,917.3 5,387.9 7,534.0 9,888.1
17 Rhode Island  351.3 2,039.2 4,669.2 7,321.1 (3)
18 Maine  1,294.4 1,970.7 3,031.9 4,738.2 (3)
19 New Hampshire  33.9 693.9 1,395.2 1,988.6 (3)
  Total homes potentially affected $197,609.5 $632,257.0 $1,138,183.1 $1,511,320.6 $1,701,112.2

(1) The risk categories are cumulative and increase in value from Category 1 to Category 5. Category 1 represents the higher risk of damage from a weak hurricane; Category 5 includes Categories 1 to 4 and the low risk of damage from a Category 5 hurricane.
(2) Measured in units.
(3) Storm surge risk for Category 5 storms for homes on the northeastern Atlantic Coast is not shown due to the extremely low probability of a Category 5 storm affecting these areas.
(4) Represents the cost to completely rebuild including labor and materials by geographic location.

Source: CoreLogic®, a property data and analytics company.

View Archived Tables

Additional resources

Florida Citizens: Financial Statements

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