Natural disasters lead to second most expensive half-year for insurers

The wildfires in California and storm damage have led to the second most expensive first half of the year ever for the insurance industry. Overall, insured losses in the first half of 2025 totalled around $80 billion dollars. According to a study published by the Swiss Re Institute on Wednesday, the level of losses is more than double the ten-year average. Insured losses were only higher in the first half of 2011, which was characterised by the earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The losses in the first half of 2025 now already amount to more than half of the losses of $150 billion originally forecast for the year as a whole. As natural catastrophe activity tends to increase in the second half of the year, insured losses for the whole of 2025 could exceed the forecast, according to the Swiss Re Institute. Largest forest fire event According to the study, the forest fires that engulfed parts of Los Angeles in ...