Both lines of business contributed to the modest growth in 2018, though the life lines – clocking growth of +2.5% – clearly lagged behind p&c products in terms of growth for the third year in a row. In 2016, the weakness of the European market was to blame, while in 2017 it was that of the US market. However, last year’s dismal performance is due to the -3.4% contraction of the Chinese life insurance market, which has a global market share of 12%. So despite the fact that life still dominates the insurance market as a whole (62% of world market share), the star performer of the 2018 show was again p&c with an estimated growth of +4.7%. Generally, there is a more stable demand for p&c products than life insurance products globally. This could be attributed to the low-yield environment, which not only deters savers from making long-term saving decisions but also leads to fierce competition between investment products.

In 2018, in per capita expenditure terms, the global population spentEUR614 on average on insurance premiums per year (life: EUR379; p&c:EUR 234). As would be expected, the expenditures per capita varied widely according to the maturity of the market, ranging from EUR5 in Nigeria to EUR7,180 in Hong Kong.