Earthquakes in Asia and Italy, flooding in the United States,Asia and Europe, and a deadly hurricane along with wildfires inCanada made 2016 the costliest 12 months for natural catastrophelosses in the last four years, according to reinsurer Munich Re.

Losses totaled $175 billion, a good two-thirds more than in theprevious year, and nearly as high as the $180 billion total in2012.

The share of uninsured losses — the so-called protection orinsurance gap — remained substantial at around 70 percent. Almost30 percent of the losses, some $50 billion, were insured.

“After three years of relatively low nat cat losses, the figuresfor 2016 are back in the mid-range, where they are expected to be.Losses in a single year are obviously random and cannot be seen asa trend,” said Torsten Jeworrek, a member of the Munich Re Boardof Management.

“The high percentage of uninsured losses, especially in emergingmarkets and developing countries, remains a concern,” he said.“Greater insurance density is important, as it helps to alleviatethe financial consequences of a catastrophe for more people. Withits risk knowledge, the insurance industry would in fact be able tobear a much greater portion of such unpredictable risks.”

Earthquake in Japan most expensive

The costliest natural catastrophes of the year occurred in Asia.There were two earthquakes on the southern Japanese island ofKyushu close to the city of Kumamoto in April (overall losses$31 billion; proportion of insured losses just under 20 percent)and devastating floods in China in June and July (overall losses$20 billion; only some 2 percent of which were insured).

North America was hit by more loss occurrences in 2016 than inany other year since 1980, with 160 events recorded. The year'smost serious event here was Hurricane Matthew.Its greatest impact was in the Caribbean island nation of Haiti,which was still struggling to recover from the 2010 earthquake.

Matthew killed around 550 people in Haiti, and also causedserious damage on the east coast of the United States. Overalllosses totaled $10.2 billion with over a third of this figureinsured.

Key natural catastrophe figures of 2016

• Both overall losses and insured losses were above theinflation-adjusted average for the past 10 years ($154 billion and$45.1 billion respectively).
• Taking very small events out of the equation, 750 relevant lossevents such as earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts and heatwaveswere recorded in the Munich Re NatCatSERVICE database. That issignificantly above the 10-year average of 590.
• Some 8,700 lives were sadly lost as a result of these naturalcatastrophes, far fewer at least than in 2015 (25,400), yet withinthe 10-year average (60,600). The past year was thus the year withthe fewest fatalities (after 2014, with 8,050 fatalities) in 30years (1986: 8,600).
• The high number of flood events, including river flooding andflash floods, was exceptional and accounted for 34 percent ofoverall losses, compared with an average of 21 percent over thepast 10 years.
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The costliest catastrophes of 2016

(Source: Statista)

Series of storms in Europe, wildfires inCanada

North America was also impacted by other extreme weatherhazards, including wildfires in the Canadian town of Fort McMurrayin May, and major floods in the southern U.S. states in summer. InCanada, the mild winter with less snow than usual, and the springheatwaves and droughts which followed, were the principal causes ofthe devastating wildfires that hit the oil-sand-producing region ofAlberta, generating overall losses of $4 billion. More thantwo-thirds of this figure was insured.

In August, floods in Louisiana and other U.S. statesfollowing persistent rain triggered losses totaling $10 billion,around a quarter of which was insured.

There was a series of storms in Europe in late May and earlyJune. Torrential rain triggered numerous flash floods, particularly in Germany, andthere was major flooding on the River Seine in and around Paris.Overall losses totalled some $6 billion, around half of which wasinsured.

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