Figure TS-5: The costs of
catastrophic weather events have exhibited a rapid upward trend in recent decades.
Yearly economic losses from large events increased 10.3-fold from US$4 billion
yr-1 in the 1950s to US$40 billion yr-1 in the 1990s (all
in 1999 US$). The insured portion of these losses rose from a negligible level
to US$9.2 billion annually during the same period, and the ratio of premiums to
catastrophe losses fell by two-thirds. Notably, costs are larger by a factor of
2 when losses from ordinary, noncatastrophic weather-related events are included.
The numbers generally include "captive" self-insurers but not the less-formal
types of self-insurance.
