August 30, 2011 1:00pm by David Farrar

Earthquake Facts

Some interesting facts from the latest cost update on the Earthquake

Number of houses estimated to have more than $100,000 of damage increased from 12,000 to 30,000
Damage to land increased from $300m – $600m to $1.8b
Total cost of earthquake now estimated to be $15b, or 8% of GDP
This makes it the largest natural disaster to hit a developed country (in terms of cost proportional to the economy) in recent memory
Government share of earthquake costs estimated to be $12.9b, including EQC
The number of claims has been 388,000. The previous highest total was 6,224 for Gisborne in 2007
Regardless of the size of the economy, the earthquakes are the 4th most costly event for insurers since 1970 – beaten only by the Northridge earthquake in California in 1994 and earthquakes in Japan in 1995 and 2011