annual report 2009-10 - IRDA

ANNUAL REPORT 2009-10Insurance penetration in select countries - 2009Source: Swiss Re, Sigma No. 3/2010.Indian Insurance in the global scenarioI.2.6 In life insurance business, India ranked 9 th amongthe 156 countries for which data are published bySwiss Re. During 2009, the life insurance premium inIndia grew by 10.1 per cent (inflation adjusted).However, during the same period, the global lifeinsurance premium had contracted by 2 per cent. Theshare of Indian life insurance sector in global marketwas 2.45 per cent during 2009, as against 1.98 percent in 2008.I.2.7 The non-life insurance sector witnessed amarginal growth of 1.6 per cent during 2009. However,its performance was better when compared to globalnon-life premium, which contracted by 0.1 per centduring the same period. The share of Indian non-lifeinsurance premium in global non-life insurancepremium remained very low at 0.46 per cent and Indiaranked 26 th in global non-life insurance premium.Insurance penetration & density in IndiaI.2.8 The measure of insurance penetration anddensity reflects the level of development of insurancesector in a country. While insurance penetration ismeasured as the percentage of insurance premiumto GDP, insurance density is calculated as the ratio ofpremium to population (per capita premium). Sinceopening up of Indian insurance sector for privateparticipation, India has reported increase in bothinsurance penetration and density. But, the increasehas been almost entirely contributed by the lifeinsurance sector.12