Natural catastrophe and man-made disasters in 2015: Asia suffers substantial losses
This edition of Swiss Re's flagship sigma series presents the annual review of natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in the last year. The publication includes two feature chapters, one on the Tianjin explosions and another on the use of technology in disaster management. The key messages of this edition include: Global insured losses from all disaster events in 2015 were USD 37 billion, below the USD 62 billion annual average of the previous 10 years. Explosions at the Port of Tianjin in August were the biggest insured-loss event of the year, and biggest man-made loss event ever in Asia. Total economic losses from natural and man-made disaster events in 2015 were USD 92 billion. There were 198 natural disasters last year, the highest on sigma records. Over 26,000 people died in disaster events; the earthquake that hit Nepal in April was the biggest disaster in terms of economic losses (USD 6 billion) and number of victims (close to 9,000)