According to the recent McKinsey’s Global Insurance Report 2025, published in three chapters covering commercial P&C, personal lines P&C, and life, finding profitable growth is an imperative for the world’s personal and commercial property and casualty insurers, while life carriers must adjust to changing consumer needs.

While personal lines P&C insurance premiums grew by 9.5% in 2022–23 to USD 1.1 trillion—outpacing nominal global GDP by half a percentage point—gross written premiums as a share of nominal GDP remained below prepandemic levels and the coverage gap between mature and emerging economies widened. However, amid all the challenges, the report sees a chance for carriers to innovate, expand coverage, and increase the industry’s relevance.

Global commercial P&C insurance lines continued to deliver strong growth despite more recent evidence of softening conditions. Premiums increased by an average of 8% annually in the past five years, while the average combined ratio for the industry trended downward to an estimated 91% in 2023. According to the report, while effective portfolio strategy should not be disregarded, execution matters even more, and insurers should double down on their capabilities in their core lines of business to achieve profitable growth.

It has been a year of unpredictable mixed signals, uncertainty, and surprising upsides for the life and retirement insurance industry. Yet there are significant opportunities amid the challenges. The life insurance market is being reshaped by the aging global “silver” population of people aged 65 or older and the concentration of wealth among Generation X7 and retirees. And while changing social norms and ways of living are challenging the traditional life insurance model, it presents an opportunity for more flexible policies catering to nontraditional family structures.

McKinsey’s Global Insurance Report 2025 offers granular insights and clear recommendations for how leading insurers can drive performance in this shifting landscape.