Currently, only 25% of disaster losses in Europe are covered by private insurance.

Omissions

• The official figure refers specifically to climate-related natural catastrophe (NatCat) losses in the EU, not to all 'disaster losses' of every type, though this is the standard metric used in EU policy debates.
• EIOPA notes the share has been around 25% 'over the past decades' and that in some Member States the coverage ratio is below 5%, and that the gap is widening as climate-related losses grow.
• Swiss Re's insurance resilience index uses a different methodology and reports a higher coverage ratio (~41% in 2025), so the 25% figure is specific to the ECB/EIOPA NatCat protection-gap metric.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Central Bank — The climate insurance protection gapWhile the effects of such events can be mitigated by catastrophe insurance, only about a quarter of climate-related catastrophe losses are currently insured in the EU. In some countries, the figure is less than 5%.
• PrimaryEIOPA — Insurance protection gaps in a changing climateWe do so because the numbers are frankly alarming: only ~25% of natcat losses in the EU have been insured over the past decades.
• PrimaryEIOPA — NatCat Reality CheckOnly ~25% of NatCat losses in the EU have been insured over the past decades.