Natural disasters: loss cost in Q1 2025

Aon has published preliminary data indicating that the economic damage caused by natural disasters in the first quarter of 2025 amounted to 83 billion USD.

53 billion USD of this amount is covered by the insurance market. This marks the second highest cost ever recorded, following that incurred in the first quarter of 2011 (81 billion USD).

The United States accounted for approximately 95% of insured losses, or 50 billion USD, largely due to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, which alone cost insurers 37.5 billion USD.

The report also states that at least seven other catastrophic events resulted in economic losses exceeding one billion dollars, including the violent storms of February and March in the USA, the powerful earthquake in Tibet (China) and the deadly earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand, the consequences of which are still being assessed.

The first quarter of 2025 saw more than 6 000 people die as a result of natural disasters, compared with 1 800 in the same period of 2024. Most of these fatalities (88%) were linked to the Myanmar earthquake.