Widening Gap Between Economic and Insured Cat Losses

The widening gap between economic losses and insured losses from natural catastrophes is our topic du jour. Guy Carpenter’s GCCapitalIdeas.com just published this chart showing that approximately 70 percent of global economic losses from natural catastrophes were uninsured between 1980 and 2013. Another compelling chart shows how small a proportion of catastrophe losses were insured in both advanced and emerging markets between 2002 and 2011. Munich Re just reported that economic losses from natural catastrophes worldwide in 2013 amounted to around $125 billion and insured losses around $31 billion.