On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, Swiss Re Group released a report stating that natural disaster insurance losses in 2025 exceeded $100 billion for the sixth consecutive year. The research institute affiliated with Swiss Re Group projected global insurance losses for the year to be $107 billion, a 24% decrease from $141 billion in 2024.
The report attributed these losses primarily to record-high losses caused by wildfires in Los Angeles in the first quarter of 2025, as well as continued devastation from severe storms which remain a major contributing factor to significant and ongoing losses globally.
Jérôme Jean Haegeli, Chief Economist of Swiss Re Group, emphasized the importance of strengthening prevention, protection, and preparedness efforts to safeguard lives and properties amid the increasing insurance losses annually.
According to the report, it is expected that 83% of the $107 billion in global insurance losses this year, amounting to $89 billion, originate from the United States, once again making it the country most affected by natural disasters. This is mainly due to wildfires and small-scale storms.
In 2025, wildfire insurance losses in the US reached a historic high of $40 billion. The scale of this destruction reflects a combination of various weather factors such as prolonged high temperatures, dry weather, strong winds, and communities located in high-risk wildfire areas, particularly where residential and high-value housing expands into hazardous wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas.
This year, insurance losses from severe storms worldwide have reached $50 billion, making 2025 the third highest year for losses after 2023 and 2024, continuing an upward trend over the years. In the first half of 2025, severe storm activity was frequent in the US, with a higher-than-average number of severe tornadoes occurring in March and May, while hail activity was close to average levels. In the latter half of the year so far, severe storm activity has been milder, with hail and more widespread thunderstorms below seasonal norms.
In Europe, significant hail disasters occurred in May and June, but since the most severe hail disasters mainly affected regions with lower concentration of high-value assets, insurance losses were limited. Overall, severe storms remain one of the primary factors contributing to global natural disaster losses.
Balz Grollimund, Head of Catastrophe Risk at Swiss Re Group, noted that losses from severe storms are steadily increasing. Factors such as urbanization in disaster-prone areas, rising asset values, increased construction costs, and aging roofs make these severe storms a significant risk for insurance companies to address.
In October, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica as a category five hurricane with winds reaching nearly 185 miles per hour, making it the strongest storm to hit Jamaica and one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes at landfall in history. It caused wind damage, severe flooding, landslides, and affected Haiti and Cuba.
According to report data, Hurricane Melissa is currently the costliest hurricane of 2025, with estimated insurance losses reaching $2.5 billion. During the North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Season, a total of 13 named storms occurred, including 5 hurricanes, 4 major hurricanes, and 3 category five hurricanes, the first time this has happened in a decade. However, none of these hurricanes made landfall on the US coast, which explains the low insurance losses from such disasters in 2025.
In late November, Southeast Asia experienced severe river flooding and flash floods, with Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia being hardest hit. The interaction of various cyclone systems, coupled with the La Niña phenomenon enhancing monsoons, created a series of complex weather systems resulting in widespread damage from heavy rains, landslides, and flash floods.
In July, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck near the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, ranking as the sixth largest earthquake recorded since 1900. The earthquake triggered a tsunami that affected Hawaii and coastal areas of mainland USA.
The response to this earthquake and subsequent tsunami was seen as a model of successful Early Warning Systems (EWS), which effectively protected high-risk populations through alerts and evacuations. The real-time and coordinated warnings provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS) saved numerous lives.
The losses suffered by coastal communities in Russia were minimal, attributed to authorities learning from past disasters and implementing significant reforms in urban planning.