NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including individuals killed or seriously injured and individuals and businesses impacted by the strikes, have received at least $38.1 billion in compensation, a study said Tuesday, with New York businesses receiving 62 percent of the total.
Insurance companies and the federal government provided more than 90 percent of the payments, said the RAND Corporation report. Those payments do not reflect expenses related to cleaning up the World Trade Center site and rebuilding public infrastructure in New York City, the report said.
"The compensation paid to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania was unprecedented both in its scope and in the mix of programs used to make payments," said Lloyd Dixon, RAND senior economist and lead author of the report, in a statement.
New York businesses received 62 percent of the total compensation, reflecting the broad-ranging economic impacts of the attack in and near the World Trade Center, said RAND, in what it called the most comprehensive examination to date of financial compensation made following the attacks.
Among individuals killed or seriously injured, emergency responders and their families have received more than civilians and their families who suffered similar economic losses, the study said.
First responders received about $1.1 million more per person than civilians with similar economic loss, according to the study.
People have questioned whether it is fitting that some lives appear to be more valuable than others, as demonstrated by higher payments to emergency responders and people who earned high salaries.
"The system has raised many questions about equity and fairness that have no obvious answers. Addressing these issues now will help the nation be better prepared for future terrorist attacks," Dixon said in a statement.
The crashing of passenger planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania account for the largest terrorist strikes in U.S. history, killing 2,551 civilians and seriously injuring another 215. The attacks also killed or seriously injured 460 emergency responders.
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