Swiss Re: cost of flooding in 2021

Swiss Re estimates that more than 50 heavy floods took place in 2021, notably in Europe, China and the United States, leading to 82 billion USD of economic losses.

Only 20 billion USD of that amount are covered by insurers, which shows a significant lack of coverage against this type of risk worldwide.

The floods of July in Germany and Belgium alone caused more than 40 billion USD of financial losses out of which 13 billion USD were insured. It is the most expensive natural disaster ever recorded in Europe.

Overall, the financial losses caused by natural disasters as a whole (floods, earthquakes, cyclones...) reached 270 billion USD in 2021. During the same year, the insured losses were estimated at 111 billion USD.