The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated China last Monday shows just how far the country’s insurance industry is behind the world’s biggest economies.

Latest figures put the death toll at 78,000 from the earthquake that rocked China’s eastern Sichuan province just outside the country’s 10th-largest city of Chengdu.

Half the 20 million people who live in the region have been directly affected and 56,000 people are still missing.

But Boston-based catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide estimates insured losses will only be between RMB2-7 billion ($305 million-$1 billion) – far below total property losses estimated at more than RMB140 billion ($21.3 billion).

Fitch Ratings says the earthquake is not likely to have a material impact on the balance sheets of China’s insurers.

The country’s biggest insurers, China Life Insurance and Ping An, have yet to extend their reach across China, where only 4% of its 1.3 billion people have insurance, according to KPMG International.

AIR cautions there is a high level of uncertainty in insured loss estimates in China.

“The insurance market is rapidly developing and earthquake coverage is optional for both residential and commercial policies,” a spokesman said. “Insurance take-up rates in this region are minimal for residential properties and only marginally higher for commercial properties.”

Fitch says despite this, losses arising from the disaster coupled with poor performance will put pressure on Chinese insurers’ full-year earnings.