This annual publication contains time series of insurance statistics for OECD member countries. Statistics and indicators are derived from national administrative sources based on a questionnaire prepared under the auspices of the OECD Insurance and Private Pensions Committee, and its Task Force on Insurance Statistics.

The OECD has been collecting insurance statistics for almost two decades,with data on the insurance sector dating back to the early 1980s. In response to the financial crisis, the Global Insurance Statistics (GIS) project was launched of the OECD’s insurance market monitoring activities.The main objective was to expand the scope of the OECD’s statistical framework for insurance and extend its global reach,with a view to enhancing the transparency of insurance markets. These changes led to the collection of key balance sheet and income statement items for the direct insurance and reinsurance sectors, and to the geographical expansion of the OECD’s Global Insurance Statistics Database.

All the data in the statistical tables of each country have been reported by the relevant national insurance authorities. Regarding comparative tables of indicators,the data are mainly drawn from the tables by country. The economic data on exchange rates, population and GDP are taken from the OECD publication Main Economic Indicators.

The rate of gross premium growth in both the life and non-life insurance sectors was positive across most countries, with only a few countries experiencing declines. The non-life sector generally had a lower rate of growth in gross premiums compared to the life sector, although the level of divergence in growth rates was wider in the non-life sector.