The ten costliest world earthquakes and tsunamis by insured losses
While insurers and reinsurers around the world are still assessing losses from the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, these events are already estimated to reach insured losses of up to $35 billion, according to AIR Worldwide and economic losses of over $100 billion, said EQECAT.
“The insurance industry will fulfill its traditional role as an economic first-responder, helping Japan recover from today’s devastating quake, just as it has done in New Zealand and Chile,” said Dr. Robert Hartwig, an economist and president of the U.S.-based Insurance Information Institute. “What makes today’s natural disaster so extraordinary is that four of the five costliest earthquakes and tsunamis in the past 30 years have occurred within the past 13 months, once you include what happened on March 11 in Japan.”
($ millions)
| Losses when occurred | |||||
| Rank | Date | Location | Overall | Insured | Fatalities |
| 1 | Jan. 17, 1994 | USA: CA: Northridge, Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Ventura, Orange |
$44,000 | $15,300 | 61 |
| 2 | Feb. 22, 2011 | New Zealand: Christchurch | 20,000 (2) | 10,000 (2) | More than 150 |
| 3 | Feb. 27, 2010 | Chile: Central; South. Includes tsunami | 30,000 | 8,000 | 520 |
| 4 | Sep. 3, 2010 | New Zealand: Christchurch | 6,500 | 5,000 | 0 |
| 5 | Jan. 17, 1995 | Japan: Prefecture Hyogo, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto | 100,000 | 3,000 | 6,430 |
| 6 | Dec. 26, 2004 | Sri Lanka; Indonesia; Thailand; India; Bangladesh; Myanmar; Maldives; Malaysia. Includes tsunami (3) |
10,000 | 1,000 | 220,000 |
| 7 | Oct. 17, 1989 | USA: CA: Loma Prieta, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Oakland Berkeley, Silicon Valley | 10,000 | 960 | 68 |
| 8 | Oct. 23, 2004 | Japan: Honshu, Niigata, Ojiya, Tokyo, Nagaoka, Yamakoshi (3) |
28,000 | 760 | 46 |
| 9 | Sep. 21, 1999 | Taiwan: Nantou, Hsinchuang, Taichung, Puli, Touliu, Yun-lin, Chunghwa |
14,000 | 750 | 2,368 |
| 10 | Dec. 28, 1989 | Australia: New South Wales, Newcastle, Sydney | 1,200 | 670 | 13 |
(1) As of March 2011.
(2) Estimated.
(3) Multiple earthquakes.
Source: © 2011 Munich Re, Geo Risks Research, NatCatSERVICE.
