Page 18 - Life Insurance Today March 2018

Indian Insurance in the

Global Scenario

Globally, the share of life insurance business in total Insurance Penetration and Density in
premium was 55.3 percent. However, the share of life
insurance business for India was very high at 77.95 percent India
while the share of non-life insurance business was small at The measure of insurance penetration and density reflects
22.05 percent. the level of development of insurance sector in a country.
While insurance penetration is measured as the percentage
In life insurance business, India is ranked 10 among the 88 of insurance premium to GDP, insurance density is
countries, for which data is published by Swiss Re. India’s calculated as the ratio of premium to population (per capita
share in global life insurance market was 2.36 percent during premium).
2016. However, during 2016, the life insurance premium in
India increased by 8 percent (inflation adjusted) when global During the first decade of insurance sector liberalization,
life insurance premium increased by 2.5 percent. the sector has reported consistent increase in insurance
penetration from 2.71 percent in 2001 to 5.20 percent in
The Indian non-life insurance sector witnessed a growth of 2009. Since then the level of penetration was declining.
12.9 percent (inflation adjusted) during 2016. During the However, there was a slight increase in the years 2015
same period, the growth in global non-life premium was (3.44 percent) and in 2016 (3.49 percent). The level of
3.7 percent. However, the share of Indian non-life insurance density reached the maximum of USD 64.4 in the
insurance premium in global non-life insurance premium year 2010 from the level of USD 11.5 in 2001. During the
was small at 0.83 percent and India ranked 15 in global year 2016, the insurance density was USD 59.7 (USD 54.7
non-life insurance markets. in 2015)

REGION-WISE LIFE AND NON-LIFE INSURANCE PREMIUM 2016
(Premium in USD Billions)
Region/Country Life Non-Life Total
Advanced markets 2110.53 1688.12 3798.65
(55.56) (44.44) (100.00)
Emerging markets 506.49 427.05 933.54
(54.25) (45.75) (100.00)
Asia 1000.27 493.26 1493.53
(66.97) (33.03) (100.00)
India 61.82 17.49 79.31
(77.95) (22.05) (100.00)
World 2617.02 2115.17 4732.19
(55.30) (44.70) (100.00)

Source: Swiss Re, Sigma 3/2017.
Note: Figures in brackets indicate share of the segment in percent.

18 March 2018 Life Insurance Today