Insurance Premium Volume in U.S. Grows 4 Percent in 2016

Overall insurance industry premiums in all lines rose 4 percent to $2.2 trillion in 2016 over 2015, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners reported.

Of the $2.2 trillion in premiums, $914 billion went to health, $665 billion to life and annuity, $576 billion to property-casualty, $13 billion to title insurance, $2.5 billion to risk retention groups and $7.3 billion to other types of premium, the NAIC said.

In the life and annuities segment, California reported the most premium ($69 billion), followed by New York ($66 billion), Delaware ($57 billion), Pennsylvania ($39 billion) and Texas ($34 billion), the NAIC reported in its 2016 Insurance Department Resources Report (IDRR), an annual compendium of industry resources and statistics.

Broken down by share, 42 percent of the $2.2 trillion in premium went to health, 30.5 percent to life and annuities, 26.4 percent to property-casualty, 0.6 percent to title insurance, 0.1 percent to risk retention groups and 0.3 percent to other lines, the NAIC reported.

The states with the most premiums written in all lines in 2016 were California ($315 billion), New York, ($163 billion), Texas ($151 billion), Florida ($148 billion) and Pennsylvania ($105 billion), the NAIC reported.

The order was unchanged from 2015.

The top five states in overall premiums accounted for 40.6 percent of all insurance premiums written in the U.S., the NAIC said.

American Samoa generated the least premium - $3.4 million – of any U.S. state or territory in 2016, the NAIC said.

The data was published Aug. 7 as the second volume of the 30th edition of the IDRR.

The report is intended to help state insurance departments assess their resources in comparison to other states.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Writer Cyril Tuohy has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.

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Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.