Economic Losses due to Climate-Related Extreme Events

This indicator tracks the total annual economic losses relative to gross domestic product that result from climate-related extreme events, referring to an event caused by natural forces , updated this year to incorporate data from the EM-DAT emergency events database. The scale of the losses resulting from a weather-related event depends not only on the severity, but also on man-made structures such as building design or the efficiency of the disaster response and control in the affected region.

The database is limited by the number of sources used to compile the data, and how effectively disasters are reported in different countries. Some events are missing from the database or have incomplete values, reporting protocols vary across countries, and certain hazards—such as heatwaves—are underreported compared to others. Economic losses are less frequently reported than human impact variables such as mortality. Insured losses are more commonly reported than uninsured losses, creating a geographic bias where some regions have lower insurance coverage. This means insured losses are not reported for this indicator. Results are similar in magnitude to those reported by commercial datasets such as Swiss Re, and allow the general magnitude of economic losses from extreme weather events to be tracked along with their long-term trends.