Canada recorded C$2.4 bn in insured catastrophe losses during 2025, according to data from Toronto-based Catastrophe Indices and Quantification (CatIQ) is a subsidiary of Zurich-based PERILS.
Uninsured losses added roughly $1 bn, pushing total societal losses to $3.4 bn, based on estimates from the Institute for Catastrophe Loss Reduction.
The insured total places 2025 as the ninth-largest loss year on record for Canada. By recent standards, losses landed toward the lower end of the past five years and sat well below the record $9.1 bn recorded in 2024.
Over a 43-year data set, insurance coverage absorbs about 54% of societal losses. The 2025 societal loss total also fell below the long-term trend, currently estimated at $9.1 bn annually and rising at about 9% per year after inflation, according to ICLR.
The numbers suggest moderation. The experience did not. According to CatIQ, 2025 ranked second for total catastrophes declared, second for ice storm losses, and first for fire-related catastrophes declared. Frequency, rather than aggregate severity, defined the year.
The costliest event was a late-March ice storm impacting Ontario and Quebec, which generated close to $490 mn in insured losses, representing nearly one-quarter of the annual total.
That event now stands as the second most expensive ice storm on record in Canada, trailing only the 1998 storm that caused an estimated $2.3 bn in losses.
Laura Twidle, president and chief executive of CatIQ, said the year followed an unusual path. She pointed to a sequence of early snow- and melt-driven events in southern Ontario and Quebec, followed by the March ice storm, before a series of fire catastrophes later in the year.
Notably, those fire events occurred in provinces without any prior industry fire catastrophe history. Seventeen catastrophe declarations in total tied 2025 for the second-highest count on record, reinforcing that a so-called average year still carries structural stress.
Paul Kovacs, executive director of ICLR, said extreme hazards continue to impose billions in insured and uninsured damage annually.
In 2025, losses stemmed largely from winter storms and wildfires, while 2024 was driven by flooding, hail, and fire.
He said many losses remain preventable through relatively modest investment in proven mitigation measures.
The scale and recurrence of these events continue to pressure coordination between insurers, reinsurers, researchers, and public authorities.
The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) is a world-class centre for multidisciplinary disaster prevention research and communication. ICLR is an independent, not-for-profit research institute founded by the insurance industry and affiliated with Western University, London, Ontario.
