The global insurance industry grew by 7.1% in 2025. The total premium pool reached €6.9 trillion, with €456 billion added during the year. Growth moderated from the exceptional 9.4% recorded in 2024 but remained above the ten-year average growth rate of 5.6%.

The figures come from Allianz Research's Global Insurance Report 2026, which tracks developments across insurance markets worldwide. Life insurance remained the largest segment at €2,861 billion, followed by property and casualty at €2,320 billion, and health at €1,688 billion.

Property and casualty cools from its pricing peak

The property and casualty market is shifting from a pricing boom toward normalisation. Global premiums in the segment increased by 3.8% in 2025, down from 8.5% growth the previous year and below the segment's ten-year average of 5.6%. Pricing cycles matured and claims inflation began to stabilise during the year.

North America remained the dominant property and casualty market. It accounted for 52% of global premiums in the segment, though growth slowed sharply to 2.2% from 9.7% the previous year. Western Europe grew 5.3%, while Asia expanded 4.0%.

That slowdown sits alongside uneven conditions within casualty lines. Aon's Q4 2025 market insights found property and cyber pricing softened through last year. Casualty faced mounting pressure from rising litigation costs and growing litigation funding in the US.

Life and health diverge across regions

Global life insurance premiums grew 6.9% in 2025, down from 11.3% in 2024 but still above historical norms. The moderation was driven primarily by North America, where an annuity boom fuelled by households locking in higher interest rates has lost momentum.

Asia re-emerged as the industry's principal growth engine in life insurance. Premiums there rose 9.9%, with China alone expanding 11.4%. Asia remains the world's largest life insurance market, supported by demographic ageing, high savings rates, and limited public pension systems.

Health insurance recorded the strongest growth among the three segments. Global health premiums increased 12.3% in 2025, the strongest expansion since 2014. Ageing populations, rising medical costs, and pressure on public healthcare systems drove the increase.

North America's health segment grew 14.9% as medical inflation accelerated, with the United States now accounting for more than 70% of global health premiums. Health insurance penetration in Asia remains below 1% in almost all markets, suggesting longer-term growth potential.

That growth has not closed the broader protection gap. Separate research from NTT DATA found uninsured losses are projected to rise from US$171 billion in 2023 to more than US$700 billion by 2030. Cybersecurity is now identified as the top business insurance risk, and climate-related uninsured losses already total US$180 billion.

A fragmenting world reshapes risk and opportunity

Geopolitical fragmentation is becoming a central force shaping the insurance industry, according to the report. A more fragmented global economy is making risk environments more complex, challenging cross-border business models and weakening traditional diversification benefits.

Fragmentation is also creating new growth opportunities by increasing demand for protection in areas including infrastructure, energy security, and political risk insurance, the report found. Insurers will need to build more regionally resilient operating models and integrate geopolitical analysis into underwriting and capital allocation.

That fragmentation theme echoes concerns raised by risk managers themselves. Manny Padilla, president of RIMS, described the current environment as a "polycrisis," pointing to climate-driven losses, geopolitical instability, fragile supply chains, and social inflation as converging exposures rather than isolated risks. "Entire geographies now carry new catastrophic assumptions," he said.

A decade-long shift toward Asia

The global insurance market is projected to grow 5.3% annually over the next ten years, slightly above expected economic output. Property and casualty premiums are expected to grow 4.7% annually through 2036. Life insurance is projected to grow 4.9% annually, while health insurance is expected to grow 6.7% annually, the fastest pace among the three segments.

Independent forecasts point to a more modest near-term picture. Swiss Re has projected non-life premiums will grow 1.7% in real terms in 2026 and around 2.5% in 2027, with global life premium growth averaging an estimated 2.3% over the same period, a more cautious near-term view than the broader ten-year outlook.

The global premium pool is expected to grow by €5,260 billion over the next decade. Most of this growth will come from life insurance at €1,991 billion, with more than half generated in wider Asia at €1,004 billion, exceeding North America and Western Europe combined.

North America is expected to retain a global market share of roughly 46% through 2036, ceding only marginal ground over the decade. India and China are expected to continue gaining relevance, together adding almost four percentage points of global market share, while Western Europe continues to lose relative weight.

Ludovic Subran, chief economist and chief investment officer at Allianz, said geopolitical fragmentation is reversing assumptions that shaped the global economy for decades. "As trade, capital flows and regulation become increasingly fragmented, resilience is replacing efficiency as the dominant organising principle," he said.

Subran said the shift is making the operating environment more complex and costly. He said insurance's strategic importance extends beyond risk transfer to its role as an enabler of investment, innovation and economic confidence.