Global insurer and reinsurer Munich Re has published a report which shows that North America has been more affected by extreme weather in terms of insurance loss events than any other major part of the globe.

For the period 1980 to 2011 the overall loss burden in North America from weather catastrophes was US$ 1,060bn (in 2011 values).The insured losses amounted to US$ 510bn, and some 30,000 people lost their lives due to weather catastrophes in North America during this time frame.

The Munich Re study states that “Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America. The study shows a nearly quintupled number of weather-related loss events in North America for the past three decades, compared with an increase factor of 4 in Asia, 2.5 in Africa, 2 in Europe and 1.5 in South America. Anthropogenic climate change is believed to contribute to this trend, though it influences various perils in different ways.”

Munich Re operates in all lines of insurance, with around 47,000 employees throughout the world and has premium income of about $35 billion from reinsurance alone. A detailed summary of the study is available at http://www.munichre.com/en/media_relations/press_releases/2012/2012_10_17_press_release.aspx