Global insured losses from catastrophe events in the first half of 2025 increased to at least $100 billion, the second highest on record after 2011’s $140 billion, driven by the Los Angeles wildfires and severe convective storm (SCS) activity in the US, reports insurance and reinsurance broker Aon.
The broking group’s Catastrophe Insight team has released its first half 2025 global catastrophe recap report, which examines loss activity in the period.
At $100 billion, the H1 2025 global insured loss total is up on H1 2024’s $71 billion, and significantly above the 21st-century average of $41 billion. According to Aon, over 90% of insured losses in the opening six months of 2025 occurred in the US, primarily driven by wildfires and SCS.
Aon’s data reveals that at least 19 events, of which 18 occurred in the US, surpassed $1 billion in insured losses in H1 2025, with the European SCS outbreak in late June the only other event to exceed the $1 billion threshold. Other notable events include Cyclone Alfred in Australia which resulted in insured losses of approximately $900 million (AUD 1.4 billion), and Windstorm Éowyn in Ireland and the UK, which caused $690 million (€620 million) in insured loss.
With much of the losses occurring in the US, the protection gap – disparity between total economic and insured losses from catastrophe events – is actually the lowest on record, according to Aon, at 38%. This is far below the 21st-century average of 69%, and driven by the fact insurance penetration in the US is fairly high when compared with other regions.
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Still, economic losses from global natural disasters in H1 2025 increased to at least $162 billion, compared with $156 billion in H1 2024. Again, this is above the 21st-century average of $141 billion. Aon cites the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in California, the Myanmar earthquake and multiple SCS outbreaks across the US as the drivers of the economic loss total.
In fact, Aon’s figures show that H1 2025 economic loss activity in the US alone hit at least $126 billion, surpassing 1994’s $115 billion as the costliest H1 on record for the region, and far above the H1 average since 2000 of $41 billion. In contrast, Aon notes that economic losses in all other regions remained below their long-term H1 averages.
Michal Lörinc, head of catastrophe insight at Aon, said: “Similarly to the prior year period, in 1H 2025 there was a lowering of the global insurance protection gap due to the high levels of coverage for U.S. events.
“While this is testament to the capital and solutions our industry provides for catastrophe perils, we need to continue our efforts to bring insurance protection and loss mitigation strategies to countries that are currently underserved, thereby helping them to increase their resiliency to natural disasters.”
Andy Marcell, CEO of Global Solutions at Aon, added: “Across Risk Capital and Human Capital, our teams continue to identify ways to not just transfer risk, but better analyse and mitigate risk in order to help countries and clients become more resilient. This approach is typified by our Impact Forecasting catastrophe modelling suite, which now spans 12 perils and 90 territories.”
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