This report is based on responses provided by jurisdictions to the annual Global Insurance Statistics (GIS) exercise. It also includes qualitative information supplied by reporting jurisdictions, or sourced from national administrative sources. Data collected under the GIS exercise can be accessed at: www.oecd.org/daf/fin/insurance/oecdinsurancestatistics.htm.
Data in this report may diverge from the short preview of insurance trends, published in July 2023. This preview was based on early estimates for domestic undertakings only, sometimes coming from other sources than in this report.
Some divergences may also exist between national reporting standards and the compilation method of certain data in the GIS exercise. For this reason, jurisdictions are regularly requested to provide relevant methodological information for a thorough understanding of their submissions to the GIS exercise. The methodological notes below provide the main explanations in this respect.
Conventional signs: "c" means confidential; ".." means missing value (not available or not applicable).
Economic data on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) come from the OECD Main Economic Indicators (MEI) and the IMF International Financial Statistics (IFS) databases.
According to the OECD GIS framework, data in in the Figures in sections 1 and 3 of this report and Tables A.A.1 and A.A.6 usually refer to direct business and include domestically incorporated undertakings (i.e. incorporated under national law) and, where data are available, branches and agencies of foreign undertakings operating in the country. Tables and figures on the asset allocation of insurers and their investment rates of return in section 2 of this publication refer to domestic direct insurers only. Some jurisdictions may be unable to exclude foreign branches of domestic undertakings; therefore, their data may include these foreign branches.
Composite undertakings operate in a number of jurisdictions. In some jurisdictions, such as Costa Rica, most insurance companies are composite companies dealing with both life and non-life businesses.
Data on stock variables refer to the end of the year while data on flow variables cover the whole year in the report. The reference period is the calendar year, except for Argentina, Egypt and Paraguay (12-month period ending in June of the year considered), and Japan (12-month period ending in March of the following year).
Data for Indonesia and Malaysia cover conventional and takaful insurance products, unless specified otherwise.
Data on composite insurers from Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal include life insurers also operating in the accident and health line of business.
Data for Korea's non-life insurance sector include private pension products offered by non-life insurers. Private pension products are considered as life insurance products under OECD definitions.
Data for the Netherlands cover both basic and additional health insurance.