About the Industry Exposure Databases

What are the Industry Exposure Databases?

Each country's database provides counts of all insurable properties and their respective replacement values, along with information about occupancy and the physical characteristics of the structures, such as construction type, year built, and height classifications. In addition, information pertaining to standard industry policy conditions, such as limits and deductibles, is incorporated into the database.

What are the Industry Exposure Databases used for?

For clients using Touchstone Re™, the databases provide the foundation for market share analyses and are also the basis for Verisk's modeled industry loss estimates for historical and real-time events. Touchstone® users can obtain better loss estimates through the use of the disaggregation feature. They can use this feature to disaggregate coarse-resolution portfolio exposure data to a highly detailed level that is in line with the spatial distribution of Verisk's Industry Exposure Databases.

The industry exposure index values are intended only for use in generating estimates of Verisk industry loss. They are not intended for use in analyzing cedant programs in Touchstone Re that use sums insured exposure data or Company Loss Files (CLFs) as the basis of analysis results.

How do we develop the Industry Exposure Databases?

We develop industry exposure indexes using the Verisk Global Capital Stock Index (VGCSI) to reflect recent changes in a country's total industry exposure. The VGCSI is the culmination of internal research on modeling capital stock (physical assets) for more than a decade. The index measures capital stock levels over time and is used to benchmark and reflect changes in value contained in Industry Exposure Databases.

Since 2012, we have released industry exposure indexes that reflect changes in asset values at a country level across all business lines. We provide global industry exposure indexes for most modeled countries and areas, with some exceptions. Exposure indexes for the United States and China are available on the Client Portal (client login required). We do not provide indexes for Albania, Macedonia, and Serbia because they are outside the scope of the VGCSI.

How often do we update the Industry Exposure Databases?

Since the databases play a critical role in catastrophe modeling, we commit considerable resources to their development and maintenance. The task of compiling and analyzing diverse data sets—risk counts, building characteristics, and construction costs from a host of data sources, in a variety of languages and resolutions, and of different vintages—is both time- and labor-intensive. Therefore, we only update the Industry Exposure Database for the United States every two years.

We update the Industry Exposure Databases for countries other than the United States less frequently. As a result, some databases included in Touchstone Re do not reflect the most current industry exposures.¹ This is particularly true for countries experiencing rapid economic growth or high inflation. Many of our clients have, therefore, asked for factors, or indexes, that can be applied to total industry exposure and that can account for recent changes.

We will continue to update the U.S. Industry Exposure Database on a regular basis; however, full Industry Exposure Database updates for other countries will coincide with major model updates. For other countries, we will release industry exposure indexes on an annual basis to ensure that modeled industry losses are kept current.