China’s life insurance industry to be world’s second largest by 2020

Friday, 16 December 2011 01:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The life insurance market in China is expected to become the second largest market in the world after the US, by 2020, according to a report from UK based research firm BRICdata.

The report suggests that life insurance market in China will provide major opportunities during the 2011-2015 period, as the market represented only 2.6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010.China remains an untapped market with only 50% of the population having some form of life insurance in 2010, despite the growth of the industry.

The report notes that the country’s ageing population; robust economic growth; the rising disposable incomes of China’s middle class; and the increasing awareness of the need for insurance, especially among the young people, were the contributors to the significant growth of China’s life insurance market during the 2006-2010 period.

China is currently the world’s sixth largest life insurance market and the second largest in Asia Pacific.