In 2013, about 84% of economic losses from serious catastrophe events happened outside of the United States, well above the 2003-2012 average of 65%, according to the 2013 Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report, released in January by Impact Forecasting.
The report details the number of natural disasters in the previous year and estimates their total costs by economic loss and insured loss.
“2013 was an active year for serious catastrophe events but one in which the industry dodged a bullet of a single dominating insured event,” said
Aon Benfield Analytics CEO Stephen Mildenhall.
Despite 84% of the economic losses occurring outside of the U.S., the country still accounted for 45% of all insured losses globally, because of greater substantial insurance penetration.
Some other interesting findings from the report:
· Global natural disasters in 2013 combined to cause economic losses of $192 billion USD, 4% below the 10-year average of $200 billion.
· The losses were generated by 296 separate events, compared to an average of 259. The disasters caused insured losses of $45 billion, 22% below the 10-year average of $58 billion and the lowest total since 2009.
· The most expensive event in the U.S. in 2013 was an EF-5 tornado that hit Moore, Okla., in May, causing about $3.8 billion in economic losses.
· Flooding represented 35% of all global economic losses during the year, the highest percentage of aggregate losses since 2010.
· The most deadly event of 2013 was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left nearly 8,000 people dead or missing in the Philippines.
· The May/June 2013 floods in Central Europe were the costliest single event of the year causing an estimated $5.3 billion USD insured loss and approximately $22 billion in economic losses. Most of the flood losses were sustained in Germany.
