Allianz Global Insurance Report 2026: Premiums Reach €6.9 Trillion as Health Grows 12.3% and Asia Is Set to Add the Most Over the Next Decade

Global insurance is still growing at a healthy pace, but the mix is changing, according to the latest annual assessment from Allianz Research. The Global Insurance Report 2026, published by the research arm of the German insurer Allianz on May 28, 2026, puts total premiums at €6.9 trillion in 2025 and shows that health insurance, not the traditional property and casualty lines, is now the fastest-growing segment. This article summarises the figures published on the Allianz website. An earlier version contained several figures that do not appear on that page, including an insurance penetration ratio and a 2026 world GDP forecast, and they have been removed.

The headline is that global premiums grew 7.1% in 2025, adding €456 billion to the total. That is slower than the exceptional 9.4% growth of 2024, but still above the ten-year compound annual growth rate of 5.6%. Premiums are the payments customers make to insurers, so the total is a measure of the size of the industry, though it is also affected by price changes and exchange rates.

The three main segments grew at very different speeds. Life insurance remained the largest, with premiums of €2,861 billion, up 6.9%, compared with growth of 11.3% in 2024. Property and casualty insurance, which covers homes, vehicles and businesses, reached €2,320 billion, up 3.8%, compared with 8.5% in 2024. Health insurance reached €1,688 billion, up 12.3%, the strongest expansion since 2014. Allianz notes that in health, North America grew 14.9% and that the United States accounts for more than 70% of global health premiums. That means much of the global health figure reflects American medical costs and coverage, a point worth remembering when comparing it with growth in other regions.

The regional detail matters. In property and casualty, North America holds 52% of global premiums, but its growth slowed to 2.2% from 9.7% in 2024. Western Europe grew 5.3% and Asia 4.0%. The slowdown in North America reflects the end of the sharp price increases that followed several years of high claims, and our coverage of US insurers this week shows how profitable the market has become. In life insurance, Asia is the largest market and grew 9.9%, with China up 11.4%. The report notes that health insurance penetration, meaning premiums as a share of the economy, is below 1% in almost all Asian markets, which suggests room for growth.

Looking ahead, Allianz projects that the global market will grow by about 5.3% a year to 2036, slightly faster than the world economy. Property and casualty is expected to grow 4.7% a year, life 4.9% and health 6.7%, the fastest of the three. Over the ten years the global premium pool would expand by about €5,260 billion, made up of €1,991 billion in life, €1,505 billion in property and casualty, 44% of which comes from North America, and €1,764 billion in health, mostly in the United States. By region, wider Asia is expected to add €1,004 billion, more than North America, at €416 billion, and Western Europe, at €402 billion, combined. As a result, North America is expected to hold about 46% of global premiums through 2036, a slight decline of half a percentage point. India and China together should gain almost four percentage points of market share, while Western Europe may lose about four points, after losing 5.3 points over the past decade.

These are projections that depend on assumptions about growth, prices and policy, and they should be read as a central scenario, not a forecast of any single year. A decade is a long time, and the figures could change with the economy, interest rates, regulation or large losses.

The risks Allianz highlights centre on geopolitics. The report says geopolitical fragmentation makes risk environments more complex, challenges cross-border business models and weakens the diversification benefits that large international insurers have relied on. At the same time, it sees opportunities in demand for infrastructure, energy security and political risk insurance. Insurers are advised to build more regionally resilient operating models and to integrate geopolitical analysis into underwriting and capital allocation. In practice this means that a company that spreads risk across many countries may find those countries are exposed to the same shocks, for example in energy supply or trade rules.

What should readers take from this? For customers, the growth in health premiums is a sign of rising medical costs and rising demand for cover, and it points to continued upward pressure on health insurance prices in many markets. For businesses and homeowners, the slowdown in property and casualty growth in North America suggests that the period of steep price rises has ended, although the report does not forecast future price changes. For investors and policymakers, the shift of growth to Asia indicates where new customers will come from, particularly in life and health, where penetration is low.

Two cautions apply. First, premium totals combine real growth in coverage with price effects, so a rise does not necessarily mean more people are insured. Second, the report is one institution's view, and other research houses, such as Swiss Re, publish different estimates using different methods. Readers who want to compare should check the definitions used. The full report on the Allianz website gives the underlying tables and the country detail.