The number of natural disasters that cost over a billion dollars has increased over the last forty years, rising from an average of three per year in the 1980s to 13 per year during the 2010s. Not only are natural disasters occurring more frequently, but the average cost and death toll from each is up as well.
The National Centers for Environmental Information has kept track of natural weather and climate disasters whose costs have totaled more than a billion dollars since 1980, adjusting for inflation for each year.
The increase in natural disaster declarations over the past several decades has led to the federal government spending more money on disaster relief as well.
