Aon puts nine-month insured catastrophe losses at $91bn, the lowest since 2019, and says 55% of economic losses were uninsured

Aon's catastrophe recap for the third quarter of 2026 gives a preliminary estimate of at least $91bn for global insured natural catastrophe losses from January to September. That is the lowest year-to-date figure since 2019. It is slightly above the 21st-century mean for the period, $88bn, but far below the $135bn average of the last five years.

Economic losses reached about $204bn, 31% below the average since 2000 and the lowest for the period since 2015. The third quarter alone produced $29bn of insured losses, also 31% below the long-term average. No single event caused $10bn or more of insured loss. However, Aon counts 23 events with insured losses above $1bn, against a 21st-century average of 14.

Severe convective storms were again the costliest peril. More than 60% of insured losses occurred in the United States, where storms alone caused $43bn. The costliest insured event of the nine months was the European drought, at $8.5bn. The Venezuela earthquake caused the largest economic loss, about $25bn, and the Colombia earthquake of 10 August was the costliest event of the third quarter by economic loss, at $9.6bn.

Aon puts the protection gap for the nine months, meaning the share of economic losses that insurance did not cover, at about 55%. It expects fourth-quarter activity, including Hurricane Isaias in early October, to take the annual insured total above $100bn. The report also notes a historic El Niño under way, with sea surface temperatures in the Niño-3.4 region about 3°C above normal.