By Scott Vincent

April 17 - (The Insurer) - Aon has estimated first quarter insured losses from natural catastrophes at more than $53 billion, the second-highest total on record.

Only 2011, which saw first-quarter insured losses of $81 billion, has seen a costlier first three months of the year, the broker said.

This year’s first quarter loss activity also substantially exceeded the 21st century average of $17 billion, with at least six individual billion-dollar loss events taking place.

The costliest of these was January’s LA wildfires, which Aon estimated at $37.5 billion.

The U.S. accounted for an unusually high proportion of first-quarter losses, with the U.S. severe convective storm peril also contributing $10 billion to the total industry claims bill.

The latter figure includes $5.3 billion from the three-day severe weather outbreak between March 14 and March 16, which Aon said already ranks among the 10 costliest U.S. SCS events on record.

Other notable events during the quarter include Storm Éowyn, which impacted the UK and Ireland on January 24 and 25. Aon estimated insured losses from Éowyn at $690 million.

In Australia, ex-Cyclone Alfred caused a further $620 million in insured losses. However, Aon said the majority of the insured loss will fall into the recently established Australia’s Cyclone Reinsurance Pool $(CRP.NZ)$, with Alfred not expected to be a market-changing event.

The broker estimated first quarter economic losses from natural catastrophes to be at least $83 billion, giving an insurance protection gap of 36% for the quarter.

Aon said this was the lowest first-quarter value since 1990, driven by the high percentage of this year’s Q1 losses that took place in the U.S.

U.S. events accounted for around $71 billion of the first quarter economic loss total, significantly above the post-2000 average of $12 billion. In contrast, all other regions saw economic losses below their long-term averages.

More than 6,000 people were killed by natural disasters during the quarter, up from 1,800 in the first quarter of 2024.

Around 88% of those fatalities were related to the Myanmar earthquake in March.