Data on climate risks and losses were collected by the European Environment Agency when it updated the database on economic losses and fatalities using two data sources: CATDAT (RiskLayer GmbH) and NatCatSERVICE (Munich Re GmbH). Losses are categorized into three groups of extreme weather events: meteorological events (eg hail storms), hydrological events (eg floods) and climatological events (eg heat waves, frosts, droughts). The survey covers 32 member states of the European Economic Area (EEA).
Based on CATDAT data (see map), the countries with the highest levels of insured economic losses as a percentage of total losses were Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway (48-56%), while Croatia, Lithuania and Romania had the lowest values (0.5-1.5%). As emphasized in a recent article published by AZN – the Slovenian Insurance Supervision Agency, with a 42.8% rate of insured losses, Slovenia has the best situation, being the only country where the rate of insured losses in the total economic losses caused by extreme weather events between 1980 and 2020 is higher than 35%.
However, the Agency underlines, despite its good position in the European Economic Area rankings, there is still a significant insurance gap which represents a high risk of losses or non-covered damages in the event of extreme events. Regarding the economic damage caused by the August floods and earlier storms, AZN expects, based on past data, that a significant proportion of them is adequately insured, at least in part.
* EEA members include 32 countries: 27 European Union Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Türkiye. The six West Balkan countries are cooperating countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo).
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