Polish Chamber of Insurance (PCI) has published a new report “insurance in numbers 2.0” summarizing data from 2024. Despite economic challenges and extreme weather events, the insurance industry demonstrated a significant and consistent growth in the last year. It shows how the role of insurance is increasing in the Polish economy and everyday life. In 2024 insurance companies in Poland paid out more than PLN 50.3 billion in benefits and claims. This represents that millions of Poles and businesses are protected from sudden financial losses.
Premiums
Earned premium was the dominant item in the total income structure. In 2024 the total gross written premium amounted to PLN 85 676.3 million (an increase of 8.6% compared to 2023) of which PLN 23 601.6 million were premiums of life insurance companies and PLN 62 074.8 million of non-life insurance.
Gross claims paid
In section 1 the total gross claims and benefits paid out amounted to PLN 16.4 billion, which is an increase of 0.9% compared to 2023. In section 2 the total gross claims and benefits paid out rose by 21.2% to PLN 33.9 billion. Claims in property grew by 48.6%, and in financial insurance by 64.7%. In motor insurance claims in the AC and OC increased by 18.2% and 12.6%. The significant growth in property insurance claims was mainly due to the floods that happened in 2024.
Cars as the biggest part of the market
Car insurance is still the most popular type of policy. In 2024 the average OC policy cost PLN 538 which is 5% more than the year before. The average damage claim from a car insurance policy was PLN 11 thousand so it gives 10% growth.
Nature’s impact
2024 brought many natural disasters that caused a lot of damage. Farmers received more than PLN 800 million for their crop losses. Insurance companies paid overall PLN 3.7 billion to people and businesses that were affected by the events. That is 64% more than the year before. These numbers show how important insurance is when nature strikes.
Life insurance
Poles more often spot the role that life insurance plays in guaranteed safety for themselves and their families. The interest in policies mostly rises in the aspects of diseases, accidents or death of the head of the family. In 2024, insurers paid out PLN 16.4 billion in life insurance claims which is a 3.5% growth from last year.
Bancassurance channel
Furthermore in terms of bancassurance, sector 1 received PLN 3.8 billion of which PLN 1.6 billion was from investment products and PLN 2.19 billion from protection products. Sector 2 on the other hand, received PLN 2.5 billion.
Even though Poland is still way behind other European countries including France, Germany. It is noticeable that Poland is prone to grow not only in life insurance but also in property. The main key to catch behind the other countries is to put focus on educating the country on the topic of insurance.