Insurance carriers and those involved with selling and managing insurance policies have seen a slow recovery since the recession. Over the period 2007 to 2012, industry revenue did not keep up with the rate of inflation, growing 4.2% over the period. In the earlier part of the decade, from 2002 to 2007, it grew 21%, exceeding inflation by 6%.

The industry presented here [NAICS 524] is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as “all establishments that are primarily engaged in one of the following: (1) underwriting (assuming the risk, assigning premiums, and so forth) annuities and insurance policies or (2) facilitating such underwriting by selling insurance policies, and by providing other insurance and employee-benefit related services.” Companies falling into the second part of the above definition account for slightly less than 10% of industry revenues.

Today’s market size is the size of the insurance industry in the United States based on its revenues in the years 2002, 2007 and 2012.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002, 2007 and 2012
Market size: $1.38, $1.67 and $1.74 trillion dollars respectively
Source: “Table 9 – Finance and Insurance (NAICS 52) Estimated Quarterly Revenue for Employer Firms Third Quarter 2009 Through Fourth Quarter 2012,” from a series of reports made available by the U.S. Census Bureau at their website, Annual & Quarterly Services, available here. The data for 2002 and 2007 are from “Finance and Insurance: Geographic Area Series: Comparative Statistics for the United States (2002 NAICS Basis): 2007 and 2002,” 2007 Economic Census, available here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census
Posted on September 5, 2013