Natural disasters hit global economy for $220bn in 2025: Swiss Re

Natural disasters caused $220bn in global economic losses in 2025, according to projections by reinsurer Swiss Re.

The company, which insures insurance companies, issued its preliminary estimate for 2025 on Tuesday. Despite the staggering cost of natural catastrophes, ranging from hurricanes to wildfires, the level of the losses was actually an improvement on the previous year, when the world was hit for $327bn.

The 33 percent drop was recorded despite the wildfires that ravaged wealthy neighbourhoods in Los Angeles in January, burning more than 9,308 hectares (23,000 acres), destroying homes and businesses and forcing thousands to flee.

Swiss Re put the insured losses from the inferno at $40bn, labelling it the globe’s costliest wildfire to date.

That single event was a major contributor to the $107bn in insured losses from natural catastrophes in 2025.

The Zurich-based reinsurer pointed out that total insured losses were down 24 percent on the previous year’s total of $141bn, largely thanks to a less severe hurricane season in the North Atlantic.

“For the first time in 10 years, none of these hurricanes made landfall on the US coast,” said Swiss Re in a statement.

Still, insured losses from storms reached $50bn in 2025, with 13 named tropical storms registered during the North Atlantic tropical cyclone season, including three Category 5 hurricanes: Erin, Humberto and Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa, which left a trail of destruction across Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, was the costliest storm of the year, with insured losses estimated at $2.5bn.

With wind gusts reaching 298km (185 miles) per hour, the hurricane was one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, causing significant flooding and landslides, and leaving dozens of people dead.

Severe storms “remain a major and persistent global loss driver”, Swiss Re noted, pointing out that 2025 was the third costliest year for extreme weather events. That completed a recent hat-trick, with  2023 and 2024 provoking the biggest losses.

Overall, US events account for 83 percent of global insured natural catastrophe losses.