Our country ranks last in the world ranking for disaster resilience, according to the corresponding index prepared by the international reinsurance organization Swiss Re, according to which only about 3% of risks prone to natural disasters are insured in Greece, while the remaining 97% are not insured .

On the contrary, countries such as Denmark, France, Poland, Switzerland, Israel, Belgium, Czech Republic, where the insurance rate ranges from 50% -82%, and somewhere in between with a coverage level of 25% -50%, countries such as Austria , Germany, the Netherlands, and also Turkey, where a compulsory home insurance system has been established.

The low rating of our country based on the Swiss Re Sustainability Index confirms the data of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies about the low level of insurance of Greeks, who at the same time demonstrate one of the highest rates of home ownership, reaching 70%, only 16% are insured against their property. In fact, this percentage is a consequence of compulsory earthquake insurance, which applies to all houses built or purchased with a bank loan, while the percentage of insured enterprises is low and, according to the same estimates, is close to 20%. .

Only 16% of real estate and 20% of businesses are insured.

The low level of insurance has not kept up with the intensity of natural disasters that have occurred in our country in recent years, whether due to extensive droughts and fires, or due to intense rains and floods, or even earthquakes due to the particularly seismic situation of the country.

The increase and intensity of these phenomena even led to an excessive burden on the state budget for the payment of compensation, the amount of which is disproportionately large for the costs of insurance companies. Characteristic is the recent statement by the Minister for Climate Change and Protection, Christos Stylianidis, that the burden of the state to cover the cost of compensation for two catastrophic events, such as the earthquake in Crete in 2020 and the fires on the island of Evia in 2021, is 500 million euros and corresponds to 20% of ENFIA’s annual income. As the responsible minister pointed out, the state’s unilateral acceptance of the cost of compensation makes the way to deal with natural disasters unsustainable in the future, given the narrow tax margins and intensity of climate change that are now evident both in our country. and globally.

An indicator of the excessive burden on the state due to the low level of insurance in our country is the fact that the fire in Mati in June 2018 “cost” private insurance companies about 35 million euros, the bad weather of “Thalia” mainly affected Evia in August 2020 “cost” about 5 million euros, in retrospect, the compensation for natural disasters from large forest fires in Attica and the rest of Greece in the summer of 2007 burdened insurance companies with only 5.6 million. Euro. The increase and intensity of natural disasters in recent years has not changed much about the level of insurance in the country as a whole, since, based on data collected by the EAEE, losses reported to insurance companies are 15% of registered losses. competent government authorities. The almost unilateral participation of the state in the payment of compensations is accompanied in a number of cases by significant delays in their payment, which further complicates the process of compensation for losses. The low representation of the insurance market is explained not only by the low level of insurance, but also by the intensification of intense natural phenomena in recent years. It is noted that the past year was characterized by strong phenomena, such as the Medea snowfall in mid-February, the Thessaly earthquake in early March and Crete at the end of September, as well as the last Ballos rainstorm. October. Characteristically, the EAEE survey for 2021 recorded 15,802 losses, and the amount of compensation is estimated at 110 million euros, while in 2020, 20,379 losses were recorded, which cost private insurance companies 102.5 million euros.