Global insurance premiums reached $8,479 billion in 2025, up from $7,896 billion in 2024, according to Swiss Re Institute’s sigma data. Swiss Re Institute forecasts total real premium growth easing to 1.3% in 2026 from 3.9% in 2025, so a larger industry is heading into a slower year. The US remained the largest market, with a 44.4% global share in 2025.
The insurance industry statistics below cover country rankings, growth forecasts, catastrophe losses, reinsurance capital, regulator results, company earnings, jobs, and insurtech funding. Each figure comes from the reinsurer, regulator, statistics agency, or company that produced it, and each carries its data period, because insurance data arrives with a lag of months.
Key Takeaways
- The US market, with $3.8 trillion in 2025 premiums, is roughly 4.4 times larger than China’s.
- Non-life real premium growth is softening to 0.6% in 2026, while life insurance growth stays at 2.3% in real terms.
- The US property and casualty combined ratio improved to 92.9% in 2025 from 96.9% in 2024, according to NAIC.
- Natural disasters caused nearly $112 billion in losses in the first half of 2026, but only $44 billion was insured, an insurance gap of 60%, per Munich Re.
- Global reinsurance capital reached a record $790 billion as of March 31, 2026, according to Aon.
- According to the OECD, insurance penetration averaged 6.2% of GDP among OECD countries in 2024, up from 6% in 2023.
Editor’s Choice
- World premium volume, 2025: $8,479 billion, against $7,896 billion in 2024.
- Global non-life premiums, 2025: $4.8 trillion, set to rise to $5 trillion in 2026.
- US P&C net premiums written, 2025: $976,779 million.
- H1 2026 insured natural catastrophe losses, Swiss Re Institute preliminary estimate: $42 billion, below the trend estimate of $66 billion.
- Q2 2026 InsurTech funding: $2.44 billion, the highest since Q2 2022.
- Insurance carriers and related activities jobs, August 2026: 2,930,000, preliminary and seasonally adjusted.
Global Insurance Industry Statistics by Country
- China maintained a stable 10% share, with premiums reaching $851 billion.
- The UK retained third place at $491 billion, including business from Lloyd’s.
- France moved up to fourth, surpassing Japan due to stronger property insurance volumes.
- Italy climbed to seventh, overtaking Canada.
- India retained its 10th position, with premiums up 5.8% to $151 billion in 2025.
- Hong Kong premiums rose 31.3% to $99 billion in 2025, while Brazil’s fell 6.4% to $81 billion.
- The top 20 markets wrote $7,631 billion of premiums in 2025.
| Rank | Market | 2025 premiums ($ billions) | 2024 premiums ($ billions) | Change (%) | Global share 2025 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 3,763 | 3,542 | 6.3 | 44.4 |
| 2 | China | 851 | 792 | 7.5 | 10.0 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 491 | 472 | 4.1 | 5.8 |
| 4 | France | 384 | 343 | 11.9 | 4.5 |
| 5 | Japan | 327 | 310 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 6 | Germany | 296 | 268 | 10.7 | 3.5 |
| 7 | Italy | 205 | 182 | 12.7 | 2.4 |
| 8 | Canada | 191 | 182 | 5.4 | 2.3 |
| 9 | South Korea | 186 | 176 | 5.8 | 2.2 |
| 10 | India | 151 | 143 | 5.8 | 1.8 |
Source: Swiss Re Institute sigma 2/2026, nominal premium volumes 2025 vs 2024
About This Data
Compiled from 36 sourced figures: 19 from regulators, the OECD, the BLS and company releases, 16 from reinsurer and broker research, and 1 from a wire copy of a company release. Source publication dates run from 2025, with Gallagher Re’s Q2 and Q3 2025 InsurTech reports, to September 2026. Only regulator and official statistics, company releases, and research with a stated method qualified. Figures are updated when sources publish new editions.
Global Insurance Premium Growth Forecast
- Swiss Re Institute expects total real premium growth to return to its long-term trend of 2% after 2027.
- Swiss Re Institute forecasts global non-life real premium growth of 0.6% in 2026, significantly below the long-term trend of 3.6%, the 2015 to 2024 compound annual growth rate.
- Life premiums are expected to grow 2.3% in real terms in 2026 (7.0% nominally), above the long-term real trend of 1.9% for 2015 to 2024.
- Global private health premium growth is expected to slow sharply to 0.5% in 2026, from 5.6% in 2025.
- Swiss Re Institute describes the latest Middle East conflict as the fourth major global supply shock in six years.
- Capital expenditure on AI by hyperscalers should reach $750 billion in 2026 in nominal terms, according to Swiss Re Institute estimates.
Is the insurance industry growing?
Yes, though more slowly. Swiss Re Institute projects global non-life premiums rising to $5 trillion in 2026, with advanced markets accounting for 85% of total volumes. Total real growth of 1.3% in 2026 comes from a softening non-life market, while life insurance growth stays robust, supported by higher yields.
Recent Developments
- July 1, 2026: Aon reported that insurers achieved double-digit pricing reductions on property catastrophe reinsurance at the June 1 and July 1 renewals, as global reinsurance demand increased by more than 10%.
- July 31, 2026: AXA reported first-half gross written premiums and other revenues of €66.3 billion, up 5%, with a Solvency II ratio of 218%.
- August 6, 2026: Gallagher Re’s Q2 2026 InsurTech report found that 99.1% of Q2 funding flowed to AI-focused companies.
- August 7, 2026: Allianz reported a record operating profit for the first six months of 2026 of €9.4 billion, up 8.6%.
- August 11, 2026: Swiss Re Institute put first-half insured natural catastrophe losses at $42 billion, the lowest first-half outcome since 2020.
- August 20, 2026: Ping An reported first-half net profit attributable to shareholders of 92,585 million yuan, up 36.1% year over year.
Non-Life Insurance Premium Statistics
- Private health insurance accounted for 47% of global non-life premiums in 2025.
- The US accounts for 80% of global health premiums, $1.8 trillion in 2025, and is expected to see a mild contraction of 0.6% in 2026 after 5.8% growth in 2025.
- North America will generate 54% of the total $2.6 trillion in additional non-life premiums written over the next decade, down from 67% in the previous decade.
- Advanced-market non-life real premium growth stayed above the previous 10-year average of 3.3%, although momentum softened after a rate-driven expansion of 4.4% in 2024.
- China’s non-life premium growth ran at less than half its historical trend of 8% between 2015 and 2024.
- Across OECD reporting jurisdictions, non-life gross premiums written grew 8.2% on average in nominal terms and 4.2% in real terms in 2024, while gross claims payments grew 7.5% on average in nominal terms.
By the numbers: Non-life premiums in emerging markets grew by 3.6% in 2025, down from 6.2% in 2024 and below the previous 10-year average of 4.8%, per Swiss Re Institute. In 2025, emerging markets stopped outgrowing advanced markets in non-life lines, which left that year’s growth leaning on firm US pricing.
Life Insurance Premium Statistics
- Real life premium growth in advanced markets was well above the previous decade average of 0.6%, but slowed from a 6.3% surge in 2024 as savings and annuity momentum normalised.
- In North America, demand for annuities eased after exceptionally strong fixed-rate sales in the previous year.
- The UK life market contracted 2.9%, reflecting weaker savings market conditions.
- Latin America contracted by 4.1%, and premiums in Brazil fell by 16.6%.
- India continued to benefit from favourable tax and regulatory developments.
Key finding: China’s life premiums expanded by 9.4% in 2025, with strong demand for savings products as the main driver, supported by attractive product features and precautionary household savings, according to Swiss Re Institute. Excluding China, emerging-market life growth looks far more modest.
The UK decline sits alongside general insurance lines in our UK insurance industry statistics.
Insurance Penetration and Protection Gap
- Insurance penetration remains lower than ten years ago by 0.4 percentage points for OECD countries and 0.7 percentage points for all reporting jurisdictions.
- The 2024 increase almost offset the decrease in penetration rates observed from 2021 to 2023.
- Insurance covered about 42% of the $100 billion in economic losses from natural catastrophes in the first half of 2026, above the 30-year average of 33%.
- Munich Re expects total losses from Venezuela’s June 24 double earthquake in the region of $30 billion, including insured losses of less than $1 billion.
- Swiss Re Institute said the low insurance penetration in Venezuela means the share of insured losses from the earthquake sequence is likely to be low.
| Group | 2023 (% of GDP) | 2024 (% of GDP) |
|---|---|---|
| OECD countries (average) | 6 | 6.2 |
| All reporting jurisdictions (average) | 5.3 | 5.4 |
Source: OECD Global Insurance Market Trends 2025, gross premiums written as a share of GDP
The gap narrows when losses land in heavily insured markets, and our parametric insurance payout data tracks one attempt to close it elsewhere.
Natural Catastrophe Insured Losses
- Secondary perils, among them wildfires, severe convective storms and floods, accounted for a record 92% of 2025 global insured natural catastrophe losses of $107 billion.
- The LA wildfires, with combined insured losses of $40 billion, represent the largest insured wildfire loss event on Sigma records.
- Severe convective storms added $51 billion of insured losses globally in 2025, the third-costliest year on record for that peril.
- Global flood-related insured losses were $3.4 billion in 2025, compared with a $15.4 billion previous five-year average.
- Severe thunderstorms in the US caused total losses of around $30 billion and insured losses of $22 billion in the first half of 2026, per Munich Re, and Swiss Re Institute named severe convective storms, mainly in the US, as the main driver of first-half losses.
| Measure, H1 2026 | Swiss Re Institute | Munich Re |
|---|---|---|
| Insured losses ($ billions) | 42 | 44 |
| Economic or overall losses ($ billions) | 100 | nearly 112 |
| Insured loss benchmark ($ billions) | 66 (trend estimate) | 50 (inflation-adjusted 10-year average), 66 (5-year average) |
| Coverage | about 42% of economic losses insured | 60% insurance gap |
Source: Swiss Re Institute (August 2026), Munich Re, first-half 2026 natural catastrophe estimates
Worth noting: Swiss Re Institute says exposure growth explains more than 80% of the long-term global increase in weather-related insured losses between 1970 and 2025. A quiet first half therefore says little about the full year, since the hurricane and wildfire seasons that drive second-half losses were still underway when the estimates closed.
Our flood insurance industry data follows US flood coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program.
Reinsurance Capital and Insurer Profitability
- Global reinsurer capital rose by $5 billion relative to the end of 2025, mainly driven by the continued growth in third-party capital.
- Reinsurers reported an average first-quarter return on equity of 14.1%, well above the average cost of equity, according to Aon.
- Reinsurance capacity was plentiful and more than adequate to meet increased demand, particularly in the US.
- Swiss Re Institute forecasts non-life insurer return on equity of 11.4% in 2026, down from a 14% peak in 2025, and 7.7% in 2028.
- Despite softer pricing conditions and rising claims inflation, non-life insurers remain profitable, per Swiss Re Institute.
| Capital component | Q1 2026 ($ billions) |
|---|---|
| Traditional reinsurer equity | 649 |
| Third-party capital | about 141 |
| Total global reinsurer capital | 790 |
Source: Aon Reinsurance Market Dynamics Midyear 2026 Renewal Report, as of March 31, 2026
Record capital and falling prices usually mark a softening cycle, so the 2025 profit peak is unlikely to repeat.
US Property and Casualty Insurance Statistics
- US P&C net premiums earned rose 5.5% to $958,726 million in 2025.
- Net income fell 10.0% to $150,551 million, as net realized gains dropped 71.6% to $22,657 million.
- Policyholders’ surplus grew 11.9% to $1,266,112 million.
- Net investment income earned rose 4.2% to $88,898 million, with an investment yield of 3.56%.
- Net losses incurred declined 1.7% to $551,755 million.
| Year | Loss ratio (%) | Combined ratio (%) | Net underwriting gain or loss ($ millions) | Return on surplus (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 72.5 | 99.6 | (112) | 5.9 |
| 2022 | 76.4 | 102.5 | (24,745) | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 76.3 | 101.7 | (19,678) | 8.5 |
| 2024 | 71.2 | 96.9 | 25,269 | 15.2 |
| 2025 | 66.5 | 92.9 | 68,742 | 12.6 |
Source: NAIC Industry Snapshots for the period ended December 31, 2025, figures in parentheses are losses
Why it matters: The US P&C industry swung from a net underwriting loss of $24,745 million in 2022 to a gain of $68,742 million in 2025, as the combined ratio fell from 102.5% to 92.9%, according to NAIC. That profit arrived just as Swiss Re expects pricing to soften, which is the setup for a shallower but real downturn.
Line-by-line results for auto, home and commercial cover sit in our property and casualty insurance statistics.
US Life, Annuity and Health Insurance Statistics
- US life and accident and health insurers wrote $1,510,984 million in direct written premium in 2025, up 5.8%.
- Life and A&H industry net income rose 30.4% to $30,487 million, with return on equity of 5.7%.
- Total net admitted assets reached $9,947,974 million, and the number of filers fell to 681 from 736 in 2024.
- Health entities wrote $1,371,260 million in direct premium in 2025, up 15.2%, but posted an underwriting loss of $8,108 million.
- The health entity combined ratio reached 100.6%, and net income fell to $5,950 million from $9,263 million in 2024.
Annuities and deposits dominate US life writings; the US life insurance industry data breaks down the protection side.
Largest Insurance Companies
- The top 10 US P&C groups held a cumulative 47.62% market share of 2025 direct premiums written.
- State Farm’s 2025 loss ratio was 70.24%, compared with 57.18% at Progressive.
- Allianz’s Property-Casualty segment posted a combined ratio of 91.4% in the first six months of 2026, ahead of its full-year outlook range.
- AXA’s P&C gross written premiums reached €35.1 billion in 1H26, up 3%, and life and health premiums reached €31.2 billion, up 8%.
- Ping An’s life and health new business value increased 11.2% to 24,847 million yuan in the first half of 2026.
| Company | Period | Top-line measure | Profit measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allianz | First six months of 2026 | Total business volume €98.6 billion | Operating profit €9.4 billion |
| AXA | 1H 2026 | Gross written premiums and other revenues €66.3 billion | Underlying earnings €4.5 billion |
| Ping An | 1H 2026 | Revenue 615,351 million yuan | Operating profit after tax 84,196 million yuan |
Source: Allianz 2Q 2026 results (August 2026), AXA Half Year 2026 Earnings (July 2026), Ping An 1H 2026 results (August 2026)
Who is the #1 insurance company in the USA?
State Farm ranked first in NAIC’s 2025 market share report with 10.33% of direct premiums written across all lines, ahead of Progressive at 7.54% and Berkshire Hathaway at 5.78%. Life insurers are ranked in a separate NAIC report, so the answer covers property and casualty coverage only.
Insurance Industry Employment
- US insurance carriers and related activities employed 2,946,400 people in May 2026, seasonally adjusted.
- The unemployment rate for workers previously employed in the industry was 3.1% in August 2026, up from 1.6% in May.
- Production and nonsupervisory employees numbered 2,279,800 in July 2026, a preliminary estimate.
Insurance sales agents are the largest of the occupations BLS lists here, and our insurance brokerage industry data covers the intermediaries behind them.
InsurTech Funding Statistics
- Global InsurTech funding rose 19.5% year on year to $5.08 billion in 2025, the first annual increase since 2021.
- P&C InsurTech funding increased 34.9% year on year to $3.49 billion in 2025.
- Early-stage funding went from $548.0 million to $264.19 million quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2026, although early-stage deal count reached 54 deals.
- (Re)insurance companies backed 27 tech investments in Q2 2026, down from 32 in Q1 2026.
- InsurTech saw just 76 deals in Q3 2025, the lowest count since Q2 2020.
Funding has recovered, but it now flows almost entirely to AI companies, a shift our AI in insurance statistics tracks in detail.
Conclusion
World insurance premiums reached $8,479 billion in 2025, with the US writing 44.4% of the total. Swiss Re Institute expects total real growth to slow to 1.3% in 2026 as non-life pricing softens. The industry enters that slowdown from a position of strength, with a sub-93% US P&C combined ratio and record reinsurance capital, so the pressure shows up first in pricing, with solvency still well cushioned.
The data to watch next is the second-half catastrophe tally and the January reinsurance renewals, which will show whether the soft market deepens. Premium growth, penetration, and loss figures for the US insurance market by sub-sector will follow the same NAIC and Swiss Re release calendar.
