Signal Global disaster losses reached about 242 billion dollars in 2024, 15 percent above the 20-year average

Summary

The report cites international disaster database figures to show the rising cost of disasters. According to EM-DAT data for 2024, economic losses from disasters worldwide that year came to about 242 billion dollars. That figure was 15 percent higher than the average annual loss over the previous 20 years. The report places this increase within a wider pattern of new and compound disasters. It uses the figure to argue that disaster risk now threatens both lives and the functioning of national systems. It sets the figure beside the rise of hard-to-predict disasters such as a data centre fire, the spread of infectious disease and social catastrophes.