The three major disasters that affected 2015 can probably be listed as the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that rattled Gorkha in Nepal on April 25, the heat wave in India and Pakistan in May and the October-November floods in India. All have in common that they occurred in developing countries and that the vast majority of lost lives and property were uninsured.

A January 2016 press release by Munich Re states that 2015 experienced the lowest insured losses of any year since 2009. Overall losses totalled US$ 90 billion, of which roughly US$ 27 billion were insured. The largest disaster in terms of human suffering was no doubt the Gorkha earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, but the costliest for the insurance sector were the north American storms of February 2015.

In contrast, a recent report by UNISDR prepared for the latest UNFCCC COP21 in Paris estimates the human costs of disasters that occurred between 1995 and 2015 and provides an alternative view to assessments by the insurance indust