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Losses from natural catastrophes covered by the insurance sector
amounted to $132 billion, 57% above the 21st-century average, it
added, leaving a global 'protection gap' of 58%.
Yet, while the number of catastrophic events such as floods and
hurricanes rose - at least 421 individual events compared to an
average of 396 since 2000 - Aon said the protection gap was one
of the lowest on record.
"It was relatively low due to the fact that many of the
costliest disasters occurred in countries with mature insurance
markets such as U.S. or Europe, whereas losses in less-covered
regions such as Asia were well below average," Michal Lörinc,
head of catastrophe insight at Aon, told Reuters.
According to the report, 75% of the global insured losses
occurred in the United States with Hurricane Ian, which hit
Florida in September 2022, causing insured damages in a range
between $50 and $55 billion from total economic losses of $95
billion.
Hurricane Ian is the second most expensive natural disaster the
insurance sector has ever faced.
Aon estimated about 31,300 people died due to natural
catastrophe events in 2022, of which about two thirds were
linked to severe heatwaves in Europe between June and July.
In Australia, insured losses linked to floods hit a record high
of $4 billion as a weather pattern associated with wet weather
called La Nińa extended its impacts into 2022 causing severe
rainfall and flooding across the country.
Similarly, in Pakistan the monsoon season caused 175%
above-average precipitation from July to September, said Aon
citing the local Meteorological Department.
(Reporting by Federica Urso; editing by Simon Jessop and Louise
Heavens)
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