Leading property and casualty insurance companies in the Netherlands 2020, by revenue

In 2020, Achmea Schade, the "damage" branch of insurance provider Achmea, was the biggest insurance company in the property and casualty sector in the Netherlands. Note that the Netherlands does not have something that exactly matches "property and casualty insurance" as in the United States. In Europe, this insurance type is known as non-life insurance. This ranking specifically looks at the "damage", or Schade, sector, a part of non-life insurance in the Netherlands which includes different sub-segments. This includes, for example, insurances that cover belongings (like a car, in case of an accident or theft), home contents (i.e. furniture damaged in a fire), property (i.e. the house itself in a fire) but also pet insurance, travel insurance or insurances for legal support. In the Netherlands, all these insurances are purchased separately. This might explain why there were nearly 140 insurance companies in the Netherlands in 2019.

If this ranking is about non-life insurance, then where are the numbers on health insurance?

A noticeable absentee in this ranking is health insurance. This exclusion was a deliberate choice from the source. In 2021, health insurance concern VGZ had the highest market share whereas companyZilveren Kruis had the highest revenue in 2019. As the Health segment plays a major role in the Dutch insurance system, it is often mentioned separately from "property and casualty insurance". This has to do with size. The Dutch government decides annually on the content of the (mandatory) health insurance and companies have to offer this through free market competition. Effectively, health insurance is the Netherlands’ biggest insurance type (as it is mandatory for all residents, regardless of age or medical history). The country has 11 big health care concerns which each own multiple companies. These companies can own multiple brands. In 2021, there were 38 health insurance brands which all offered different types of insurance policies for various prices.

How big is the insurance market in the Netherlands?

In 2019, the Netherlands had an insurance penetration (insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP) of roughly nine percent. Roughly 16 percent of all gross premiums that year came from the life segment (meaning the other 84 percent came from the property and casualty/non-life segment), a percentage that was significantly lower than those in Belgium and Luxembourg. It is possible that the Netherlands’ market-based health insurance system is responsible for this.