The number of large protests and demonstrations globally has risen 36% since the financial crisis in 2008, from an average of 355 per year in the decade to 2009 to 482 per year in the decade since, new data from Chaucer shows.
The firm noted that large protests increased 71% in Europe during this time, 229% in the Middle East and North Africa region, and 48% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Chaucer mainly attributes this unrest to political opposition against austerity measure following the financial crisis, which manifested in popular movements and street protests from the indignados in Spain and gilets jaunes in France to the Occupy movement in the US and elsewhere.
More recently the Black Lives Matter movement has led to large number of protests in the US and more widely across the globe.
Chaucer analysis of US protest data found that the number of large protests jumped 156% last year from 2,553 to 6,545, driven by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Germany, which in the last decade has experienced sizeable protests on issues including EU austerity measures and anti-immigrant feeling, saw the largest increase in protests of major European economies, with an overall increase of 247%.
And analysts forecast more instability ahead as countries begin to feel the economic toll of COVID-19 pandemic.
“These figures clearly show an increase in political unrest in the post-financial crisis world,” said Andrew Bauckham, Head of Political Violence & Crisis Management at Chaucer. “When times are tough, anger invariably mounts against governments and elites, which spills over into protest and civil unrest.”
“Increasing incidents of civil protest has led some international insurers to exclude damage caused by protests and unrest from mainstream insurance. This process of removing cover was accelerated by the increase in global protests after the Global Financial Crisis,” Bauckham continued.
“This has created the need for a specific class of insurance that banks, retailers, leisure operators, real estate funds and other businesses can buy to make sure they are covered for what can be very major losses.”
