Facts + Statistics: Global catastrophes

World, natural catastrophes

2016 natural catastrophes

According to Munich Re, overall losses from world-wide natural catastrophes in 2016 totaled $175 billion dollars, up from $103 billion in 2015. 2016 losses resulted from 750 events, compared with 730 events in 2015. Insured losses from these events rose to $50 billion in 2016, up from $32 billion in 2015. Insured losses in 2016 were higher than the average of the past 10 years, at $45 billion and the average for the past 30 years, at $34 billion (adjusted for inflation). There were 8,700 fatalities from natural catastrophes, about a third of the 25,400 deaths recorded in 2015.

Ranked by insured losses, the most costly natural catastrophe in 2016 was an earthquake in Japan from April 14-16 that caused $6 billion in insured losses. Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean and the United States resulted in $3.8 billion in insured losses from September 28-October 9. Rounding out the top 5 catastrophes by insured losses were floods in Europe from May to June, causing $3.2 billion in losses and floods in the United States in August that resulted in losses of $3.0 billion; and the Canadian wildfire in May that caused $2.9 billion in losses.

World Natural Catastrophes, 2016

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World Natural Catastrophe Losses, 2016

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World Natural Catastrophes By Type Of Event, 2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World Natural Catastrophes By Continent, 2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World Weather-Related Catastrophes By Type of Event, 2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World Weather-Related Natural Catastrophes By Continent, 2016

(Percentage distribution)

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Top 10 World Costliest Natural Catastrophes By Overall Losses, 1980-2016

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Top 10 World Costliest Natural Catastrophes By Insured Losses, 1980-2016

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Top 10 World Costliest Natural Catastrophes By Fatalities, 1980-2016

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World Natural Catastrophes Overall And Losses, 1980–2016

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Number Of World Natural Catastrophes, 1980-2016

(Number of relevant events by peril)

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World Weather-Related Natural Catastrophes By Overall And Insured Losses, 1980-2016

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World Weather-Related Natural Catastrophes By Peril, 1980-2016

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World Natural Catastrophes By Type Of Event, 1980-2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World Natural Catastrophes By Continent, 1980-2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World Weather-Related Natural Catastrophes By Type Of Event, 1980-2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World Weather-Related Natural Catastrophes By Continent, 1980-2016

(Percentage distribution)

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World insurance losses

Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters resulted in $54 billion in global insured losses in 2016, the highest since 2012, according to Swiss Re. Insured losses were $38 billion in 2015. In 2016 insured losses were in line with the inflation-adjusted previous 10-year average of $53 billion. The earthquakes in Japan in April were the largest insured-loss event of the year, resulting in $4.9 billion in insured losses. There were 327 disaster events in 2016, of which 191 were natural disasters, accounting for $46 billion in insured losses. By region, North America accounted for the lion’s share of insured losses in 2016, with about $30 billion and almost 60 percent of world insured losses. Most of those losses resulted from hurricanes—especially Hurricane Matthew incurring $4 billion in insured losses—as well as hailstorms, thunderstorms, and severe floods. In Canada, wildfires in May through July caused the highest ever recorded losses, at $2.8 billion. In terms of human loss, Hurricane Matthew was the worst disaster, claiming 734 victims in the United States and the Caribbean. In the United States, severe storms and flooding in Louisiana in August was the second worst catastrophe, after Hurricane Matthew, causing $3.1 billion in insured losses.

Global Catastrophes, 2016

	Number of incidents	Deaths	Insured loss ($ millions)
Storms	82	1,640	$20,344
Floods	65	3,336	5,694
Drought, bush fires, heat waves	16	340	4,664
Earthquakes	16	1,386	9,046
Hail	6	0	6,236
Cold, frost	5	158	0
Other natural catastrophes	1	24	0
Total natural catastrophes	191	6,884	$45,944
Man-made disasters	136	4,014	$7,797
All catatrophes (1)	327	10,864	$53,516

(1) Based on events classified by Swiss Re as a catastrophe. The threshold is $19.9 million in insured losses for maritime disasters, $39.8 million for aviation disasters and $49.5 million for other losses or $99.0 million in total economic losses; or at least 20 dead or missing, 50 injured or 2,000 made homeless.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, 2/2017.

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Top 10 Deadliest World Catastrophes, 2016

Rank	Date	Country/region	Event	Victims (1)
1	Sep. 28	U.S. and the Caribbean	Hurricane Matthew	734
2	Apr. 16	Ecuador	Earthquake Mw 7.8	673
3	Aug. 29	North Korea	Remnants of Typhoon Lionrock trigger floods along Tumen River	538
4	Jun. 3	Greece, Mediterranean Sea	Boat carrying migrants capsizes	358
5	Apr. 13	India	Heat waves	300
6	Aug. 24	Italy	Earthquake Mw 6.2	299
7	Jun. 30	China	Severe floods along Yangtze River	289
8	Jul. 18	China	Severe floods	289
9	Nov. 3	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	Boat carrying migrants capsizes	240
10	Jul. 15	India	Monsoon floods	228

(1) Dead and missing.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, No. 2/2017.

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Top 20 Costliest Insurance Losses, 2016 (1)

($ millions)

Rank	Date	Country	Event	Insured loss in U.S. dollars
1	Apr. 14	Japan	Earthquakes	$4,887
2	Oct. 6	U.S. and the Caribbean	Hurricane Matthew	4,000
3	Aug. 11	U.S.	Severe storms and flooding, LA	3,102
4	Apr. 10	U.S.	Severe hailstorm in San Antonio, TX	2,995
5	May 27	Germany, France	Storms/floods (low-pressure systems Elvira and Friederike)	2,886
6	May 2	Canada	Fort McMurray wildfires	2,782
7	Nov. 14	New Zealand	Earthquake Mw 7.8	1,700-2,400
8	Mar. 23	U.S.	North Texas hailstorm, thunderstorms	1,689
9	Feb. 28	Ghana	Turret failure at a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel	(2)
10	Apr. 29	U.S.	Thunderstorms, large hail, tornadoes, flash floods	1,187
11	Jul. 28	U.S.	Thunderstorms, severe hail damage in CO, hailstorm in WY	1,135
12	Apr. 16	U.S.	Flash flood, river flood in Houston region from torrential rains, TX	1,037
13	Mar. 17	U.S.	Thunderstorms, large hail in Forth Worth and Arlington, TX	920
14	Nov. 28	U.S.	Chimney Tops 2 Fire spreads to forest areas in dry conditions, TN	919
15	May 21	U.S.	Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail	874
16	May 7	U.S.	Thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes	764
17	May 11	U.S.	Thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes	666
18	Apr. 25	U.S.	Thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes	639
19	Feb. 22	U.S., Canada	Thunderstorms, 50 tornadoes, hail	637
20	Mar. 31	France	Steam generator falls and causes damage to nuclear power plant	(2)

(1) Property and business interruption losses, excludes life and liability losses. Includes flood losses in the U.S. insured via the National Flood Insurance Program. Loss data shown here may differ from figures shown elsewhere for the same event due to differences in the date of publication, the geographical area covered and other criteria used by organizations collecting the data.

(2) Data not released by Swiss Re.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, No. 2/2017; Property Claim Services (PCS®), a Verisk Analytics® business, insured losses for natural catastrophes in the United States.

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World Insured Catastrophe Losses, 2007-2016 (1)

(2016 $ millions)

Year	Weather-related natural catastrophes	Man-made	Earthquakes	Total
2007	$27,348	$6,682	$649	$34,679
2008	48,864	9,351	470	58,685
2009	23,945	4,394	681	29,020
2010	33,320	5,253	14,862	53,435
2011	70,274	6,856	57,220	134,350
2012	66,886	6,146	1,788	74,819
2013	36,852	7,968	46	44,866
2014	29,083	7,136	317	36,537
2015	27,550	9,612	517	37,678
2016	36,898	7,797	9,046	53,741

(1) In order to maintain comparability of the data over the course of time, the minimum threshold for losses was adjusted annually to compensate for inflation in the United Sates. Adjusted to 2016 dollars by Swiss Re.

Source: Swiss Re.

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Top 10 Costliest World Insurance Losses, 1970-2016 (1)

(2016 $ millions)

Rank	Date	Country	Event	Insured loss
1	Aug. 25, 2005	U.S., Gulf of Mexico	Hurricane Katrina, storm surge, damage to oil rigs	$80,699
2	Mar. 11, 2011	Japan	Earthquake (Mw 9.0) triggers tsunami	37,344
3	Oct. 24, 2012	U.S., Caribbean, Canada	Hurricane Sandy, storm surge	30,141
4	Aug. 23, 1992	U.S., Bahamas	Hurricane Andrew, floods	27,368
5	Sep. 11, 2001	U.S.	Terror attacks on WTC, Pentagon and other buildings	25,456
6	Jan. 17, 1994	U.S.	Northridge earthquake (Mw 6.7)	24,773
7	Sep. 6, 2008	U.S., Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean	Hurricane Ike, floods, damage to oil rigs	22,577
8	Feb. 22, 2011	New Zealand	Earthquake (Mw 6.1), aftershocks	17,072
9	Sep. 2, 2004	U.S., Caribbean, Venezuela	Hurricane Ivan, damage to oil rigs	16,417
10	Jul. 27, 2011	Thailand	Heavy monsoon rains, extreme flooding	16,005

(1) Property and business interruption losses, excludes life and liability losses. Includes flood losses in the United States insured via the National Flood Insurance Program. Adjusted to 2016 dollars by Swiss Re.

Note: Loss data shown here may differ from figures shown elsewhere for the same event due to differences in the date of publication, the geographical area covered and other criteria used by organizations collecting the data.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, 2/2017.

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Top 10 Deadliest World Catastrophes, 1970-2016

Rank	Date	Country	Event	Victims (1)
1	Nov. 11, 1970	Bangladesh	Storm and flood catastrophe	300,000
2	Jul. 28, 1976	China	Earthquake (Mw 7.6)	255,000
3	Jan. 12, 2010	Haiti	Earthquake (Mw 7.0), aftershocks	222,570
4	Dec. 26, 2004	Indonesia, Thailand et al.	Earthquake (Mw 9), tsunami in Indian Ocean	220,000
5	May 2, 2008	Myanmar (Burma), Bay of Bengal	Tropical cyclone Nargis, Irrawaddy Delta flooded	138,300
6	Apr. 29, 1991	Bangladesh	Tropical cyclone Gorky	138,000
7	May 12, 2008	China	Earthquake (Mw 7.9) in Sichuan, aftershocks	87,449
8	Oct. 8, 2005	Pakistan, India, Afghanistan	Earthquake (Mw 7.6), aftershocks, landslides	74,310
9	May 31, 1970	Peru	Earthquake (Mw 7.9) triggers rock slide and floods	66,000
10	Jun. 15, 2010	Russia, Czech Republic	Heat wave with temperatures up to 40◦ Celsius	55,630

(1) Dead and missing.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, No. 1/2017.

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Man-made disasters

In 2015, 353 catastrophic events occurred, including 198 natural catastrophes, the highest ever recorded, and 155 man-made disasters, according to Swiss Re. Natural catastrophes caused about $28 billion in insured losses in 2015, while man-made disasters resulted in additional losses of about $9 billion. The costliest of both man-made and natural disasters in 2015 was the two explosions at the port of Tianjin in China, which triggered property claims of $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion. The September 11 terrorist attack in the U.S. was the costliest man-made disaster in history, based on Swiss Re data going back to 1970. It caused $25.1 billion in insured losses (in 2015 dollars). A fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh in April 2014 resulted in 1,127 deaths, making it one of the deadliest industrial fires in modern history.

Man-Made Disasters In 2016

	Number of incidents	Deaths	Insured loss ($ millions)
All man-made disasters (1)	136	4,014	$7,797

Major fires, explosions	47	766	$4,643
Industry, warehouses	17	84	2,027
Oil, gas	13	136	1,921
Other buildings	11	387	0
Other fires, explosions	5	159	617
Department stores	1	0	78
Maritime disasters	36	1,596	$2,463
Passenger ships	19	1,530	0
Drilling platforms	9	0	1,944
Tankers	5	66	98
Other maritime accidents	3	0	420
Aviation disasters	11	384	$248
Crashes	7	383	117
Space	2	0	41
Damage on ground	2	1	90
Rail disasters (includes cableways)	11	318	$87
Mining accidents	8	166	$184
Collapse of buildings, bridges	3	100	$0
Miscellaneous	20	684	$173
Terrorism	15	601	173
Social unrest	1	0	0
Other miscellaneous losses	4	83	0

(1) Based on events classified by Swiss Re as a catastrophe. The threshold is $19.9 million in insured losses for maritime disasters, $39.8 million for aviation disasters and $49.5 million for other losses or at least 20 dead or missing, 50 injured or 2,000 made homeless.

NA=Data not available.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, 2/2017.

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Top 20 World Property Damage Losses In The Hydrocarbon Industry (1)

(US $ millions)

Rank	Date	Plant type	Event type	Location	Country	Property loss (2)
1	Jul. 7, 1988	Upstream	Explosion/fire	Piper Alpha, North Sea	U.K.	$1,810
2	Oct. 23,1989	Petrochem	Vapour cloud explosion	Pasadena, Texas	U.S.	1,400
3	Jan. 19, 2004	Gas processing	Explosion/fire	Skikda	Algeria	940
4	Jun. 4, 2009	Upstream	Collision	Norwegian Sector	North Sea	840
5	Mar. 19, 1989	Upstream	Explosion/fire	Gulf of Mexico	U.S.	830
6	Jun. 25, 2000	Refinery	Explosion/fire	Mina Al-Ahmadi	Kuwait	820
7	May 15, 2001	Upstream	Explosion/fire/sinking	Campos Basin	Brasil	790
8	Sep. 25, 1998	Gas processing	Explosion	Longford, Victoria	Australia	750
9	Apr. 24, 1988	Upstream	Blowout	Enchova, Campos Basin	Brazil	700
10	Sep. 21, 2001	Petrochemical	Explosion	Toulouse	France	680
11	May 4, 1988	Petrochemical	Explosion	Henderson, Nevada	U.S.	640
12	May 5, 1988	Refinery	Vapour cloud explosion	Norco, Louisiana	U.S.	610
13	Mar. 11, 2011	Refinery	Earthquake (3)	Sendai	Japan	600
14	Apr. 21, 2010	Upstream	Blowout/explosion/fire	Gulf of Mexico	U.S.	600
15	Sep. 12, 2008	Refinery	Hurricane	Texas	U.S.	550
16	Jun. 13, 2013	Petrochemical	Explosion/fire	Geismar, Louisiana	U.S.	510
17	Apr. 2, 2013	Refinery	Flooding/fire	La Plata, Ensenada	Argentina	500 (4)
18	Dec. 25, 1997	Gas processing	Explosion/fire	Bintulu, Sarawak	Malaysia	490
19	Jul. 27, 2005	Upstream	Collision/fire	Mumbai High North Field	India	480
20	Nov. 14, 1987	Petrochemical	Vapour cloud explosion	Pampa, Texas	USA	480

(1) Property damage, debris removal and clean-up costs.
(2) Inflated to December 2013 values.
(3) Loss to refinery following the Tohuku earthquake.
(4) Preliminary.

Source: Energy Practice, Marsh & McLennan Companies.

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Nuclear incidents

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rates the severity of nuclear incidents on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) from one (indicating an anomaly) to seven (indicating a major event). The scale considers an event’s impact based on three criteria: its effect on people and the environment; whether it caused unsafe levels of radiation in a facility; and if preventive measures did not function as intended. Scales six and seven designate full meltdowns, where the nuclear fuel reactor core overheats and melts. Partial meltdowns, in which the fuel is damaged, are rated four or five.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency assigned a provisional rating of seven to the March 2011 accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The 1986 Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union is the only other incident to rate a seven. The Chernobyl incident killed 56 people directly and thousands of others indirectly through cancer and other diseases. The 2011 incident released high amounts of radiation and caused widespread evacuations in affected areas but no deaths to date.

The 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the worst nuclear accident in the United States, was designated a five. Insurers paid about $71 million in liability claims and litigation costs associated with the accident. In addition to the liability payments to the public under the Price-Anderson Act, $300 million was paid by a pool of insurers to the operator of the damaged nuclear power plant under its property insurance policy.

Selected Examples Of Historic Nuclear Events, Classified By The INES (1)

Level	INES description	Example
1	Anomaly	Breach of operating limits at nuclear facilities
2	Incident	Atucha, Argentina, 2005 - Overexposure of a worker at a power reactor exceeding the annual limit
3	Serious incident	Sellafield, U.K., 2005 - Release of large quantity of radioactive material, contained within the installation
4	Accident with local consequences	Tokaimura, Japan, 1999 - Fatal exposure of workers following an event at a nuclear facility
5	Accident with wider consequences	3 Mile Island, U.S., 1979 - Severe damage to reactor core. Minimal breach of outside environment
6	Serious accident	Kyshtym, Russia, 1957 - Significant release of radioactive material from the explosion of high activity waste tank
7	Major accident	Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986 - Widespread health and environmental effects from explosion in power plant