Towering at $1.2 trillion in direct premiums and wielding $8.2 trillion in assets, the U.S. insurance industry is not just a financial giant but a fundamental pillar of the American economy, as revealed by the latest 2022 data that paints a picture of robust growth, evolving risks, and immense societal impact.
Key Takeaways
- In 2022, the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry wrote $787 billion in net premiums earned, marking a 5.5% increase from 2021.
- The U.S. insurance industry held $8.2 trillion in total assets as of year-end 2022.
- U.S. life insurers' cash and invested assets reached $5.5 trillion in 2022.
- Direct premiums written for auto insurance in the U.S. increased 13.8% in 2022 to $314 billion.
- Private passenger auto insurance accounted for 27% of all P&C premiums in 2022.
- U.S. homeowners insurance direct premiums written rose 12.1% to $128 billion in 2022.
- U.S. individual annuity premiums written were $379 billion in 2022.
- Group life insurance premiums reached $50 billion in 2022.
- U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium was $14.4 billion in 2022.
- The U.S. insurance industry employed 1,588,000 people in 2022.
- Insurance carriers sector (NAICS 5241) had 988,000 employees in 2022.
- Agencies, brokerages, and service employed 600,000 in 2022.
- U.S. insurers' invested assets totaled $6.8 trillion in 2022.
- Bonds comprised 72% of U.S. insurers' invested assets in 2022.
- Stocks made up 18% of invested assets for insurers in 2022.
The U.S. insurance industry grew robustly in 2022, holding trillions in assets and employing millions of Americans.
Employment & Workforce
- The U.S. insurance industry employed 1,588,000 people in 2022.
- Insurance carriers sector (NAICS 5241) had 988,000 employees in 2022.
- Agencies, brokerages, and service employed 600,000 in 2022.
- Average annual wage in insurance carriers was $126,630 in 2022.
- Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators: 340,000 employed, mean wage $76,450.
- Insurance sales agents: 372,000 employed, average wage $69,080 in 2022.
- Actuaries: 28,500 employed, highest wage at $120,000 average.
- Underwriters: 122,000 employed, mean wage $81,460 in 2022.
- Insurance appraisers, auto damage: 11,000 employed, wage $69,400.
- Top paying state for insurance: Connecticut, average $145,000 in carriers.
- Women comprised 58% of insurance industry workforce in 2022.
- Insurance occupations grew 5% from 2021-2022.
- Customer service reps in insurance: 215,000 employed.
- Financial examiners in insurance: 65,000, wage $89,790.
- Compliance officers: 42,000 in insurance, average wage $78,500.
- IT support in insurance: 120,000 employed.
- Management occupations in insurance: 180,000, highest paid group.
- Labor productivity in insurance carriers rose 2.1% in 2022.
- Union membership rate in insurance: 2.8% in 2022.
- New hires in insurance: 450,000 in 2022.
- Separations rate: 3.5% monthly average in insurance 2022.
- Job openings in insurance averaged 150,000 per month in 2022.
- Quit rate: 1.8% in insurance sector 2022.
- Layoffs low at 0.4% in insurance 2022.
Employment & Workforce Interpretation
While navigating the labyrinth of claims, policies, and actuarial tables, America's 1.6 million insurance professionals manage to both guard our collective peace of mind and secure their own, with the industry's steady growth and low layoffs suggesting we're all betting on a future worth insuring.
Financials & Investments
- U.S. insurers' invested assets totaled $6.8 trillion in 2022.
- Bonds comprised 72% of U.S. insurers' invested assets in 2022.
- Stocks made up 18% of invested assets for insurers in 2022.
- Cash and short-term investments: 4% of total assets.
- Mortgage loans: 9% of insurers' portfolios in 2022.
- Net investment income for P&C insurers: $65 billion in 2022.
- Unrealized capital gains for life insurers: $150 billion in 2022.
- Policyholder surplus growth: 5.8% to $1.1 trillion in P&C 2022.
- Leverage ratio for P&C: 2.6:1 in 2022.
- Life insurers' surplus: $550 billion in 2022.
- P&C insurers' net income from investments: 12% of total income.
- Corporate bond holdings: $3.2 trillion by U.S. insurers 2022.
- U.S. Treasuries held: $1.1 trillion.
- Municipal bonds: $500 billion in portfolios.
- Common stocks value: $800 billion end-2022.
- Preferred stocks: $150 billion.
- Schedule BA assets (non-standard): $400 billion.
- Investment yield for P&C: 3.2% in 2022.
- Total return on invested assets for life: 4.1%.
- Impairment charges low at 0.5% of assets.
- Derivatives use: 20% of large insurers hedged in 2022.
- U.S. P&C insurers' cash flow from operations: $120 billion positive in 2022.
- Dividends paid by insurers: $40 billion in 2022.
- Net cash from investments: $50 billion.
- Life insurers' separate account assets: $2.1 trillion in 2022.
Financials & Investments Interpretation
While the industry would have you believe their fortune-telling skills are unmatched, the $6.8 trillion truth is that they’ve mastered the rather less mystical art of cautiously parking a mountain of cash in bonds, patiently watching it grow just enough to pay your claim while quietly building a colossal safety net.
Life & Health Insurance
- U.S. individual annuity premiums written were $379 billion in 2022.
- Group life insurance premiums reached $50 billion in 2022.
- U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium was $14.4 billion in 2022.
- Health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored plans averaged $8,435 for single coverage in 2022.
- Family coverage health premiums averaged $23,968 in 2022.
- Medicare Advantage enrollment reached 29 million in 2022.
- Medicaid managed care enrollment was 75 million in 2022.
- Individual health insurance market premiums averaged $7,188 annually in 2022.
- U.S. life insurance ownership rate was 52% among adults in 2022.
- Term life insurance initial death benefit averaged $196,000 in 2022.
- Whole life face amount purchased totaled $12 billion in 2022.
- Universal life new annualized premium was $4.1 billion in 2022.
- Long-term care insurance policies in force numbered 7.2 million in 2022.
- Critical illness sales reached $1.2 billion in premiums in 2022.
- Dental insurance covered 74 million people under individual plans in 2022.
- Vision insurance enrollment was approximately 80 million in 2022.
- Disability income insurance claims paid totaled $10 billion in 2022.
- U.S. health insurers processed 5.2 billion claims in 2022.
- Life insurance benefits paid out $1.05 trillion since 2020 cumulatively, with 2022 at $200 billion.
- Medicare Supplement policies in force: 12.5 million in 2022.
- Uninsured rate in U.S. dropped to 8.4% or 28 million in 2022.
- Employer-sponsored health coverage rate: 53.3% of population in 2022.
Life & Health Insurance Interpretation
This avalanche of numbers reveals a nation obsessively, expensively, and contradictorily insuring itself against every conceivable peril except perhaps the most certain one of all: the bill.
Market Overview
- In 2022, the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry wrote $787 billion in net premiums earned, marking a 5.5% increase from 2021.
- The U.S. insurance industry held $8.2 trillion in total assets as of year-end 2022.
- U.S. life insurers' cash and invested assets reached $5.5 trillion in 2022.
- The U.S. insurance sector employed 1.6 million people in 2022, representing 1.1% of total U.S. employment.
- Direct premiums written for all lines of insurance in the U.S. totaled $1.2 trillion in 2022.
- The U.S. P&C insurance market share held by the top 10 writers was 45.2% in 2022.
- U.S. health insurance premiums grew by 5.1% to $1.3 trillion in 2022.
- The combined ratio for U.S. P&C insurers improved to 100.0% in 2022 from 102.5% in 2021.
- U.S. insurance industry policyholder surplus reached $1.1 trillion at year-end 2022.
- Personal lines accounted for 52% of U.S. P&C direct premiums written in 2022, totaling $452 billion.
- Commercial lines P&C premiums in the U.S. reached $414 billion in 2022.
- U.S. insurers' net income after taxes for P&C was $81 billion in 2022.
- The U.S. insurance industry's return on equity was 10.2% in 2022.
- Life/annuity segment represented 52% of total U.S. insurance premiums in 2022.
- P&C segment made up 48% of U.S. insurance premiums in 2022.
- U.S. P&C loss and LAE reserves stood at $907 billion as of 2022.
- The number of U.S. property/casualty insurance companies was 2,866 in 2022.
- U.S. life/health insurers numbered 715 in 2022.
- Total U.S. insurance premiums grew 7.0% in 2022 to approximately $1.5 trillion.
- U.S. insurance penetration rate (premiums as % of GDP) was 7.2% in 2022.
- U.S. insurance density (premiums per capita) reached $4,500 in 2022.
- The U.S. P&C market saw a 9.4% increase in net premiums written in 2022.
- Catastrophe losses for U.S. P&C insurers totaled $165 billion before reinsurance in 2022.
- U.S. insurers paid $837 billion in benefits to policyholders in 2022.
- The U.S. insurance industry contributed $1.1 trillion to GDP in 2021 (latest chained data).
- Market Size and Revenue: U.S. insurance premiums to hit $1.6 trillion by 2023.
- Premiums and Revenues: P&C net premiums earned $787B in 2022.
Market Overview Interpretation
While a cool $1.5 trillion flowed in to soothe America’s collective anxiety, over 2,800 insurers proved they're not just betting against disaster but are, in fact, a towering $8.2 trillion fortress of financial reassurance—even if it cost us each $4,500 to feel this secure.
Property & Casualty Insurance
- Direct premiums written for auto insurance in the U.S. increased 13.8% in 2022 to $314 billion.
- Private passenger auto insurance accounted for 27% of all P&C premiums in 2022.
- U.S. homeowners insurance direct premiums written rose 12.1% to $128 billion in 2022.
- Commercial multiperil premiums grew 10.7% to $85 billion in U.S. P&C in 2022.
- Workers compensation premiums in the U.S. increased 7.3% to $54 billion in 2022.
- Medical malpractice premiums written totaled $3.5 billion in 2022, up 4.2%.
- U.S. P&C insurers' incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses were $592 billion in 2022.
- The average annual premium for full coverage auto insurance was $2,014 in 2023 (reflecting 2022 trends).
- Homeowners insurance average annual premium rose to $1,544 in 2023 from 2022 data.
- Commercial casualty insurance premiums increased 8.9% to $72 billion in 2022.
- Fire and allied lines premiums totaled $45 billion in U.S. P&C 2022.
- Allied lines premiums were $82 billion, up 11.2% in 2022.
- Ocean marine premiums written reached $3.1 billion in 2022.
- Aircraft premiums totaled $3.9 billion in U.S. P&C 2022.
- Boiler and machinery premiums were $1.7 billion in 2022.
- P&C reinsurance premiums written in the U.S. grew to $25 billion in 2022.
- U.S. P&C personal property catastrophe losses were $170 billion in 2022.
- Auto physical damage premiums increased 14.5% to $96 billion in 2022.
- Liability premiums in P&C totaled $140 billion in 2022.
- Other liability occurrence premiums were $28 billion.
- Products liability premiums stood at $5.2 billion in 2022.
- Federal flood insurance premiums totaled $3.6 billion in 2022.
Property & Casualty Insurance Interpretation
Americans in 2022 discovered, at a steep premium, that they were living in an expensive and perilous world where their cars, homes, and businesses all seemed to be racing toward catastrophe.
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