In addition to the US, losses from weather-related natural disasters have also risen significantly in relation to gross national income in Canada.

In Canada, mean weighted losses over the past five years were more than four times higher than the mean for 1980–1989. The highest proportion of weather-related losses (adjusted for inflation) since 1980 was caused by severe thunderstorms (34%), followed by floods and forest fires. These natural hazards also accounted for the highest losses in the past five years. Viewed over the entire period, just under half of these losses were uninsured (46%). Today, the insurance gap continues to narrow.

In the US, losses from tropical cyclones continue to dominate (1980–2024: 51% of total losses, adjusted for inflation), followed by severe thunderstorms (27%). Over the past five years, however, the mean proportion of losses from severe thunderstorms has climbed to one third. What’s true for the US also applies globally: while “peak perils” such as tropical cyclones or earthquakes produce extreme losses, the “non-peak perils” in connection with smaller natural disasters such as floods, severe thunderstorms with hail, and forest fires are what shape the trend. And that trend is on the rise, due in part to climate change, as many studies show. As in Canada, the insurance gap in the US was less than 50%. Especially when it comes to severe thunderstorms and forest fires, the proportion of insured losses is very high – in many cases, around two thirds of total losses.

There were significant increases in weighted losses in Germany and Italy.

In Germany, the Ahr Valley flooding in 2021 – the costliest flooding disaster in history, with estimated losses of more than US$ 42bn – exacerbated the already visible upward trend. In terms of the entire period, flood disasters accounted for around half of the losses (adjusted for inflation), followed by severe thunderstorms with roughly a quarter. Due to the relatively low flood insurance penetration, the insurance gap was ca. 54% and did not change noticeably. Adjusted for flood losses, around 37% of losses from weather disasters were uninsured over the period as a whole. Over the past five years, the insurance gap has averaged around one third. 

In Italy, flooding events were responsible for around two thirds of the inflation-adjusted losses caused by weather disasters over the entire period, while severe thunderstorms with hail accounted for around one fifth. But this ratio has since been reversed: in the past five years, on average half of the weather-related losses were caused by flooding, while severe thunderstorms accounted for more than 40%. Northern Italy is considered to be the European region where severe hailstorms are particularly on the rise due to climate change.

The insurance gap for weather disasters in Italy was high – between 1980 and 2024, on average 86% of all losses were uninsured. In recent years, the insurance gap has narrowed to around two thirds of total losses.

In France, winter storms accounted for around 44% of weather-related, inflation-adjusted losses between 1980 and 2024, followed by flooding (25%). Some of the severe winter storms in the 1990s were responsible for the decade’s high weighted losses. Apart from that, an upward trend is visible.

In contrast, in the past five years the majority of losses were caused by severe thunderstorms (38%), which scientists assume to be on the rise due to climate change. Like northern Italy, southern France is another region where the risk of severe hailstorms with high potential losses is growing. Just under half of the losses in France since 1980 have been insured.

Among the largest European economies, the only one with a downward trend in weighted weather losses was the UK. There, winter storms have accounted for around 52% of total losses (adjusted for inflation) since 1980, followed by floods at just under a third. Two winter storms in the 1980s and 1990s were also among the UK’s costliest natural disasters and drove the weighted losses in these two decades – in the years since, such storms have never occurred so frequently in Europe. Improvements in flood protection are likely another factor: Greater London, for example, has been protected from storm surges by the Thames Barrier since the mid-1980s. 

Of the ten largest industrialised nations, China is the only one in which losses from weather-related natural disasters decreased in relation to economic output in the period under review.

Many regions in China are extremely flood-prone. Floods have accounted for around 60% of the inflation-adjusted losses from weather disasters since 1980. In the 1990s, there were multiple flood disasters with losses in the double-digit billions (adjusted for inflation). The flood disaster on the Yangtze in 1998 was one of the costliest in the world, producing inflation-adjusted losses of US$ 32.5bn.

Since then, China’s economy has experienced impressive growth, with many urban centres – often located near rivers – expanding tremendously. The country has invested heavily in flood protection, including the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze, built in the early 2000s. The combination of these factors – rapid economic growth and investments in flood protection – has likely contributed to the decline in weighted losses since the early 2000s, despite further flood-related losses running into the billions. The insurance gap in China remains very high – on average, more than 90% of losses over the past five years were still uninsured.

Japan is widely considered to be one of the world’s highest-risk countries in terms of natural disasters, particularly due to the extremely high risk of earthquakes. Among weather-related natural disasters, typhoons pose the greatest threat. Since 1980, they have been responsible for nearly three quarters of total losses (adjusted for inflation) from weather disasters. At the same time, Japan is regarded as a country with a very high level of prevention to protect its citizens and limit losses, for example through stringent construction standards and nationwide early warning systems.

Japan’s economy was characterised by strong growth until the early 1990s. This was followed by a long crisis with stagflation and ups and downs in economic output, which continued until recently. On the claims side, several typhoons in 2018 and 2019, which were responsible for billions in losses, drove up the weighted losses in the 2010s.

These factors make it difficult to interpret the loss data for Japan as a percentage of economic output. Over the period as a whole, a relatively high proportion of losses from weather-related natural disasters was insured, with the insurance gap amounting to roughly half.

In India, the trend towards rising losses in relation to economic output is also clearly visible, even though a devastating flood disaster in the 1990s drove up the average losses at the time. In 1993, floods in large parts of the country destroyed assets worth US$ 18.5 billion (adjusted for inflation) and almost 1,000 people lost their lives. Floods were also responsible for two-thirds of all losses from weather-related natural disasters in India over the entire period 1980–2024. Only around 5% of them were insured – and the insurance gap has remained virtually unchanged in recent years.

In Brazil, floods and droughts are the most serious natural disasters. Excluding drought losses, which are difficult to measure, natural disasters have caused losses of around US$ 43bn (adjusted for inflation) since 1980 in Brazil. Only just over 5% of them were insured. The insurance gap has since narrowed somewhat. Floods accounted for more than 80% of the aforementioned total losses.

There were very high weighted losses in the 1980s, at the beginning of the period in question. At that time, a very strong El Niño phase (a manifestation of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate phenomenon) led to major weather-related losses in large parts of South America.

In 2024, the most severe floods in the past several decades struck southern Brazil. More than 2 million people were affected and at least 200 people were killed. Losses were estimated at around US$ 15bn (inflation-adjusted). At nearly the same time, there was a months-long drought in northern Brazil, affecting around 60% of the country at times. The losses – from repeated crop failures – also ran into the billions.

Due to the extreme fluctuations at the beginning and end of the observation period and the difficulty of measuring drought losses, the weighted damage for Brazil is difficult to assess. However, on the claims side there has been an accumulation of losses from weather disasters since the early 2000s. And in the case of the extreme events in 2024 – the floods in Rio Grande do Sul and the drought in large parts of the country further north – studies concluded that climate change had made events of this kind both significantly more likely and more intense.