Natural disasters: death tolls and economic impact (1970-2020)
Hurricanes are the costliest events reported during the 1970-2020 period with 521 billion USD in losses. Hurricane Katrina (163.61 billion USD) stands out as the most expensive disaster in history.
Natural disasters: fatalities and economic costs by continent (1970-2020)
| Continent | Number of natural disasters (1) | Number of fatalities | Economic costs in billions USD | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Africa | 1 695 | 16% | 731 747 | 36% | 38,5 | 1% |
Asia | 3 454 | 31% | 975 622 | 48% | 1 200 | 33% |
South America | 795 | 7% | 34 854 | 2% | 61.3 | 2% |
North America (1) | 1 977 | 18% | 74 839 | 3% | 1 700 | 47% |
Pacific Southwest | 1 407 | 13% | 65 391 | 3% | 163.7 | 4% |
Europe | 1 672 | 15% | 159 438 | 8% | 476.5 | 13% |
| Total world | 11 000 | 100% | 2 041 891 | 100% | 3 640 | 100% |
* Disasters of meteorological, climatic or hydrological origin
(1) Also includes Central America and the Caribbean
Source : World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Read also | The 10 deadliest climatic disasters
If the major industrialized economies fail to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the next 30 years, the climate crisis could only get worse. The economic losses would then reach 5 000 billion USD by 2050, which would translate into the shrinking of the GDP of the G7 countries by an average of 8.5% per year.
For the first half of 2021 alone, natural disasters related to climate change have already reached record levels, even though the events of July, August and September have not yet been taken into account.
At the end of June of the current year, the insured damages are estimated at 40 billion USD while the economic losses would amount to 77 billion USD. Insurers claim that 2021 could be ranked among the most expensive years.
Apart from climate disturbances, the demographic growth coupled with the accumulation of wealth in areas exposed to natural disasters are likely to increase the bill. The latter is likely to amount to 300 billion USD per year in case of a peak of claims associated with an intense hurricane season and an accumulation of secondary perils.
Read also | Global Warming: causes and effects
