Facts + Statistics: Global catastrophes

2017 natural catastrophes

According to Munich Re, overall losses from world-wide natural catastrophes in 2017 totaled $330 billion dollars, up from $184 billion in 2016. 2017 losses resulted from 710 events, compared with 780 events in 2016. Insured losses from these events rose to $135 billion in 2017, up from $50.7 billion in 2016. Insured losses in 2017 were almost three times higher than the average of the past 10 years, at $49 billion and almost four times higher than the average for the past 30 years, at $35 billion (adjusted for inflation). There were 10,00 fatalities from natural catastrophes in 2017, compared with 9,650 deaths recorded in 2016.

Ranked by insured losses, the costliest natural catastrophe in 2017 was Hurricane Irma that caused $32 billion in insured losses in the United States and the Caribbean. Hurricane Harvey in the United States resulted in $30 billion in insured losses. Rounding out the top 5 catastrophes by insured losses were Hurricane Maria in the Caribbean with $30 billion in losses; wildfires in the United States in October that resulted in losses of $8.0 billion; and hailstorms in May that caused $2.5 billion in losses.

World natural catastrophes, 2017

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World natural catastrophe losses, 2017

(1) U.S. losses include the loss estimation based on Property Claim Services (PCS).

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Top 10 world costliest natural catastrophes by insured losses, 2017 (1)

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(1) U.S. losses include the loss estimation based on Property Claims Services (PCS).

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Top 5 world natural catastrophes by fatalities, 2017

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World natural catastrophes by overall and insured losses, 1980–2017

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World natural catastrophes overall and losses, 1980–2017

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Number of world natural catastrophes, 1980-2017

(Number of relevant events by peril)

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Number of world natural catastrophes, 1980-2017

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World weather-related natural catastrophes by overall and insured losses, 1980-2017

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World weather-related natural catastrophes by peril, 1980-2017

(Number of relevant events by peril)

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World weather-related natural catastrophes by peril, 1980-2017

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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

Global natural catastrophes and man-made disasters resulted in $144 billion in insured losses in 2017, the highest annual insured losses since Swiss Re began keeping records. The top three events in terms of insured losses were from three hurricanes, Maria, Irma and Harvey, which accounted for a total of $92 billion, followed by two wildfires that resulted in almost $10.5 billion in insured losses. There were 301 disaster events in 2017, of which 183 were natural disasters, accounting for $136 billion in insured losses. Man-made disasters and earthquakes and tsunamis accounted for the remaining $8 billion in losses. In the previous year, in 2016, total insured losses were $56 billion, close to the inflation-adjusted previous 10-year average of $53 billion. By region, North America accounted for the majority of insured losses in 2017, with about $119 billion and almost 83 percent of world insured losses. Most of those losses resulted from hurricanes—Maria, Harvey and Irma—as well as wildfires and flooding. More than 11,000 people world-wide perished in natural and man-made disasters in 2017. In terms of human loss, flooding in Sierra Leone was the worst disaster, claiming 1,141 lives. An earthquake on the Iran-Iraq border was the second-worst, with a death toll of 630.

Global Catastrophes, 2017

Event	Number of incidents	Deaths	Insured loss ($ millions)
Storms	82	1,642	$111,475
Drought, bush fires, heat waves	14	435	14,237
Hail	8	0	7,549
Floods	55	3,515	2,144
Earthquakes	12	1,184	1,615
Cold, frost	5	153	1,038
Other natural catastrophes	7	1,541	0
Total natural catastrophes	183	8,470	$138,057
Man-made disasters	118	2,934	$6,246
All catastrophes (1)	301	11,404	$144,303

(1) Based on events classified by Swiss Re as a catastrophe. The threshold is $20.3 million in insured losses for maritime disasters, $40.7 million for aviation disasters and $50.5 million for other losses or $101.0 million in total economic losses; or at least 20 dead or missing, 50 injured or 2,000 made homeless.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, 1/2018.

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Top 10 Deadliest World Catastrophes, 2017

Rank	Date	Country	Event	Victims (1)
1	Aug. 14	Sierra Leone	Heavy rains trigger flood and massive landslide and debris flow in Babadorie River Valley	1,141
2	Nov. 12	Iran, Iraq	Earthquake Mw 7.3 on the Iran-Iraq border	630
3	Aug. 12	India	Floods caused by heavy monsoon rains in Bihar; River Gandak burst its banks in 8 points	514
4	Sep. 19	Mexico	Earthquake Mw 7.1	369
5	Mar. 31	Colombia	Torrential rains caused Mocoa, Sangoyaco and Mulato to overflow and trigger massive landslide	336
6	Dec. 22	Philippines	Tropical storm Tembin (Vinta) triggers flooding	331
7	Nov. 24	Egypt	Bomb explosion at a mosque	311
8	May 24	Sri Lanka	Torrential rains trigger floods along the Kalu River Basin, landslides	293
9	Apr. 12	India	Heat wave	264
10	Jan. 14	Zimbabwe	Heavy rains exacerbated by remnants of Cyclone Dineo trigger floods	251

(1) Dead and missing.

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, No. 1/2018.

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Top 20 Costliest World Insurance Losses, 2017 (1)

(US$ millions)

Rank	Date	Country/region	Event	Insured loss in U.S. dollars
1	Sep. 19	U.S., Caribbean	Hurricane Maria	$32,000
2	Sep. 6	U.S., Caribbean	Hurricane Irma	30,000
3	Aug. 25	U.S.	Hurricane Harvey (Category 4), severe inland flood in Houston	30,000
4	Oct. 8	U.S.	Wildland fire “Tubbs Fire“	7,710
5	Oct. 8	U.S.	Wildland fire “Atlas Fire“	2,666
6	May 8	U.S.	Hailstorm, thunderstorms, tornadoes, severe hail damage in Denver, CO	2,507
7	Mar. 26	U.S.	Hailstorm, thunderstorms, tornadoes	1,967
8	Dec. 4	U.S.	Wildland fire “Thomas Fire“	1,787
9	Mar. 6	U.S.	Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail	1,600
10	Jun. 11	U.S.	Hailstorm in Minnesota	1,549
11	Feb. 28	U.S.	Thunderstorms, tornadoes, large hail	1,370
12	Mar. 28	Australia	Cyclone Debbie, storm surge	1,306
13	Sep. 19	Mexico	Earthquake Mw 7.1	1,200
14	Jun. 27	U.S.	Thunderstorms, large hail, tornadoes	1,131
15	Aug. 23	China, Vietnam, Hong Kong	Typhoon Hato	1,107
16	Apr. 19	Europe	Cold spell brings frost damage	930
17	Jan. 11	United Arab Emirates	Fire at a refinery	(2)
18	Oct. 18	Philippines, Japan	Typhoon Lan (Paolo)	888
19	Jan. 18	U.S.	Major tornado outbreak, 1 EF3 tornado in Hattiesburg, MS	853
20	Mar. 14	Canada	Fire at a refinery	(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. 1/2018; 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, 2008-2017 (1)

(2017 $ millions)

Year	Weather-related natural catastrophes	Man-made	Earthquakes/tsunami	Total
2008	$49,890	$9,547	$480	$59,917
2009	24,447	4,486	696	29,630
2010	32,869	5,364	18,211	56,443
2011	72,253	7,377	59,327	138,958
2012	68,714	6,275	1,825	76,815
2013	37,633	8,135	47	45,815
2014	30,094	7,286	324	37,704
2015	28,134	9,813	527	38,474
2016	38,695	8,377	8,863	55,935
2017	136,442	6,246	1,615	144,303

(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 States. Adjusted to 2017 dollars by Swiss Re.

Source: Swiss Re Institute.

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Top 10 Costliest World Insurance Losses, 1970-2017 (1)

(2017 $ millions)

Rank	Date	Country	Event	Insured loss
1	Aug. 25, 2005	U.S., Gulf of Mexico	Hurricane Katrina, storm surge, damage to oil rigs	$82,394
2	Mar. 3, 2011	Japan	Earthquake (Mw 9.0) triggers tsunami	38,128
3	Sep. 19, 2017	U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean	Hurricane Maria	32,000
4	Oct. 24, 2012	U.S., Caribbean, Canada	Hurricane Sandy, storm surge	30,774
5	Sep. 6, 2017	U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean	Hurricane Irma	30,000
6	Aug. 25, 2017	U.S.	Hurricane Harvey	30,000
7	Aug. 23, 1992	U.S., Bahamas	Hurricane Andrew, storm surge	27,943
8	Sep. 11, 2001	U.S.	Terror attacks on WTC, Pentagon and other buildings	25,991
9	Jan. 1, 1994	U.S.	Northridge earthquake (Mw 6.7)	25,293
10	Sep. 6, 2008	U.S., Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico	Hurricane Ike, floods, damage to oil rigs	23,051

(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. U.S. natural catastrophe figures based on Property Claim Services data. Adjusted to 2017 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, No. 1/2018.

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Top 10 Deadliest World Catastrophes, 1970-2017

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	138,373
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. 1/2018.

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Man-made disasters

There were 301 catastrophic events in 2017, including 183 natural disasters and 118 man-made disaster, according to Swiss Re. Natural catastrophes resulted in $138.1 billion in insured losses, while man-made disasters caused $6.2 billion in insured losses. The deadliest man-made event was a bomb explosion in a mosque in Egypt that killed 311 people. Terrorism world-wide claimed 731 lives, up from 601 lives in 2016. In terms of insured losses, major fires and explosion were the costliest with $5.4 billion in losses. 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 26 billion in insured losses (in 2017 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, 2017

Event	Number of incidents	Deaths	Insured loss ($ millions)
All man-made disasters (1)	118	2,934	$6,246

Major fires, explosions	45	477	$5,439
Oil, gas	15	36	3,056
Industry, warehouses	14	73	1,845
Other buildings	11	308	382
Other fires, explosions	3	22	81
Department stores	2	38	76
Aviation disasters	7	165	$410
Space	2	0	188
Crashes	3	165	131
Damage on ground	2	0	90
Miscellaneous	21	925	$200
Social unrest	1	0	200
Terrorism	13	731	0
Other miscellaneous losses	7	194	0
Maritime disasters	33	1,163	$197
Drilling platforms	1	0	90
Freighters	2	22	75
Tankers	1	0	32
Passenger ships	27	1,087	0
Other maritime accidents	2	54	0
Rail disasters (includes cableways)	10	140	$0
Mining accidents	2	64	$0

Source: Swiss Re, sigma, 1/2018.

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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 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 only one death 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