Natural catastrophes caused an estimated $65 billion in insured losses — the bulk of which were in the United States — last year, according to an analysis released Thursday by Munich Reinsurance Co.

Insured losses in the United States in 2012 totaled about $58 billion, well above the $27 billion tallied in 2011, said Carl Hedde, senior vice president and head of risk accumulation at Princeton, N.J.-based Munich Reinsurance America Inc., during a webinar discussion of the year's natural catastrophe record.

Superstorm Sandy alone accounted for about $25 billion in insured losses, Mr. Hedde said.

Ernst Rauch, head of Munich Re's corporate climate center in Munich, noted that the most significant events outside of the United States were earthquakes in Italy, which resulted in overall insured losses of $1.6 billion, making them the “costliest losses for the Italian insurance industry ever.”

He said 900 natural catastrophes occurred worldwide in 2012, considerably higher than the 2002-2011 average of 800. Insured losses totaled about $65 billion compared to a 10-year average of $50 billion.

That made 2012 the third-costliest year for the insurance industry globally, following only 2011 and 2005, and the second-costliest for the United States, surpassed only by 2005.

In a separate analysis of the 2012 catastrophe record released Thursday, Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic Inc. stressed that “current inactivity is not a reliable indicator of future activity” and noted that, among other things, low California wildfire activity in 2010 and 2011 was followed by increased activity last year.

“While hazards tend to occur in the traditionally accepted areas, such as wildfires in California and floods along the Mississippi River, it is just as important for insurers, homeowners, businesses and emergency responders to develop a more comprehensive evaluation of risk that includes typically nontraditional locations,” said CoreLogic in its “CoreLogic 2012 Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis.”