Jennifer Rudden
Research Lead Financial Services & Real estate
Insurance industry in the Nordics - statistics & facts
Europe is one of the world’s leading markets for insurance and is home to some of the largest insurers globally, such as Allianz, Aviva, Axa, and Munich Re. Gross life premiums in Europe have remained above 600 billion euros since 2010, with the Nordic countries featuring in the fifteen major contributors to the life insurance market. The Nordic region includes Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland.
Insurance markets by country
Several Nordic insurance companies are market leaders in Europe. Sampo is a Finnish insurance company that was among the largest public non-life insurance companies on the European market in 2021, while Sweden saw the highest total gross written non-life premiums in the Nordic region in 2020. Denmark and Norway followed behind Sweden. In the same year, Denmark and Finland had the second- and third largest insurance penetration among all European countries. This highlights the importance of the insurance industry for the economy of these countries.Life insurance: market leaders
Life insurance refers to an insurance policy whereby the insurer pays a benefit to the policy holder in the event of the insured person’s death. Life insurance accounted for a significantly larger share of the insurance market in Sweden than it did in Iceland. Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) was the largest life insurance company in Norway. This company is also Norway’s largest pension fund, and held a market share of nearly 40 percent in 2022. Pension funds are a type of social insurance offered by providing income to an insured person once they retire. Pension funds also typically provide death and disability benefits. Insurance companies and pension funds are major institutional investors. In the final quarter of 2021, Swedish insurers had a combined investment value of nearly 200 billion euros – the second-highest investment value within the Nordic region.
