The costliest wildfire event of the year – the January fires in and around Los Angeles that directly claimed the lives of 30 people – burnt a relatively small 23,000 hectares (56,000 acres) but caused at least USD 53 billion in damages.

Of those damages, only USD 40 billion was insured, according to the global reinsurance company Munich Re.

Wildfires burned through 390 million hectares (964 million acres) in 2025 – equivalent to 92% of the European Union’s land area.

In 2025 the total cost of damages caused by all types of natural hazards has been calculated by Munich Re at USD 224 billion, of which USD 108 billion was insured.

In a clear demonstration of the disparity between cost of damages and other measurable impacts, the year’s second most expensive disaster, Myanmar’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake in March, had damages of around USD 12 billion; however its human cost was more than 4500 lives, with thousands more injured.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) has published the figures to show how the global reinsurance industry’s balance sheet forms a basis for how disasters are discussed, compared, and remembered. But while these numbers make the news cycle – and draw much-needed attention to rising disaster risks – they capture only part of the story.

The UNDRR notes that beyond the insured damage to homes and businesses lies a far larger set of costs – borne by communities, ecosystems, health systems, and future development – that rarely appear on balance sheets. These invisible costs affect recovery long after the flames are extinguished, and determine whether societies emerge more resilient or more vulnerable to the next shock. 

Wildfires rank among the most economically destructive hazards globally, and the costs are rising. Between 2014 and 2023, wildfires caused an estimated USD 106 billion in economic losses and USD 74 billion in insured losses globally – far exceeding losses in the previous decade, as found by the 2025 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2025). The United States accounts for most of these impacts, with nine of the ten most expensive wildfire events since 1970 occurring in the US, even before accounting for the January 2025 California wildfires, GAR 2025 shows.  

The countries most affected by wildfire in terms of land burned are overwhelmingly in Africa: during 2025, wildfires burned through nearly 390 million hectares worldwide (an area almost as large as the European Union), with over half of the total area (nearly 246 million hectares) in  Africa. These lands in Africa, mostly uninsured, are home to millions who suffer losses to their subsistence livelihoods, as well as the destruction of priceless environmental and cultural heritage. 

Australia recorded one of the largest proportions of land affected by wildfires during 2025. But unlike many other fire-affected regions, Australia benefits from long-standing, high-quality loss data, allowing wildfire impacts to be assessed over decades rather than inferred from isolated events. The report notes this as “area lost” but much of the fire in Australia is in the northern savannah regions that benefit from regular, low-intensity fires.

(The following graphics show the Percentage of wildfire burn in 2025, and the Total hectares burnt. Hover over the graphic for more details.)

The UNDRR concludes that global wildfire costs appear concentrated where assets are high value and insured – which is almost certainly not where impacts are greatest. 

From the perspective of insurers and reinsurers – the institutions that offer insurance to insurance companies to cover megalosses – 2025 stands out as a year of exceptional wildfire losses. 

GAR 2025 calculated that total losses from those fires – including insured, uninsured and long-term indirect costs – are even higher, and likely to exceed USD 250 billion, making it among the most expensive disasters on record. 

But most expensive doesn’t necessarily mean most destructive. What insured loss figures obscure is the duration and breadth of wildfire impacts.

“Even when data exists, it is often focused on direct impacts and not enough on indirect impacts. This is a major gap in how disaster risk is understood,” according to Kamal Kishore, head of UNDRR.