 "People travel on a boat as they move to safer places through a flooded road in Chennai")
Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, said that 300 separate global natural disasters occurred in 2015, compared to the 15-year average of 269 events, causing a combined total insured loss of $35 billion, 31% below the 15-year average of $51 billion, and the lowest annual insured loss total since 2009.
Aon Benfield is the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc. Global economic losses from natural catastrophes in 2015 stood at $123 billion — 30% below the 15-year average of $175 billion. There were 14 multi-billion dollar economic loss events around the world, with the costliest being forest fires that burned out of control in Indonesia. At $16.1 billion, the World Bank said that the economic loss from the fires represented 1.9 % of the country’s GDP.
Meanwhile, 2015 replaced 2014 as the warmest year since the recording of global land and ocean temperature began in 1880. The study reveals that the three costliest perils — flood, severe thunderstorm, and wildfire — accounted for 59% of all economic losses during the 12 months under review. The deadliest event of 2015 was the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and subsequent aftershock that struck Nepal in April and May, killing more than 9,100 people and costing the nation and surrounding countries an estimated $8.0 billion in damage and reconstruction.
Stephen Mildenhall, Chairman of Aon Analytics, said, “Global insured property catastrophes in 2015 accounted for just 28% of economic losses, in line with the 10-year average of 29%. In many regions, economic catastrophe losses are very material relative to national GDP and yet are insured at much lower levels than in the United States and Europe.”
