Jennifer Rudden
Research Lead Financial Services & Real estate
Non-life insurance industry in the United Kingdom (UK) - statistics & facts
Non-life insurance, otherwise called general insurance, includes insurance policies that provide a guarantee of compensation for loss, damage or illness. The United Kingdom (UK) was the second largest non-life insurance market in Europe as of 2020, with total gross premiums written valued at over 100 billion euros. Insurance is highly specific to the country of operation. In the UK, where almost all people have access to the National Healthcare Service (NHS), private health insurance is a relatively small portion of the insurance market. Property and motor, on the other hand, take up considerable market shares.
Non-life insurance segments
Property or home insurance provides protection or liability coverage for property owners. There are numerous insurance products within this broad insurance category, but overall they can be divided into home, content and combined insurance. The UK’s share of the property insurance segment in Europe amounted for nearly one-quarter, with gross written property insurance premiums worth over 20 billion euros. Similarly, that year gross written premiums from general liability insurance in the UK reached over 15 billion euros. General liability insurance, also known as business liability insurance, is a type of non-life insurance that covers “general” claims involving bodily injury or property damage that happen as a result of normal workday operations. In 2019, claims paid out by general liability insurance companies in the amounted to almost 15 billion euros.Non-life investment market and insurance density
The UK non-life insurance market accounted for 15 percent of the European insurers’ investment market share in 2020. That same year, the investment portfolio of UK non-life insurers reached 120 billion euros. While insurance investments are generally more concentrated in the life insurance segment in the UK, the investment value of non-life UK insurance companies still accounts for approximately 70 billion euros each quarter. Another way of evaluating the non-life insurance market is by looking at insurance density, which refers to the annual amount paid by each citizen if all UK citizens had that type of insurance, and is represented by insurance premiums per capita. For instance, the amount of average general liability insurance premium per capita was 270 euros in 2020, while the property insurance density in the UK reached 375 euros in property insurance premiums per capita.
