Insurance access statistics show a large gap between the people who need affordable protection and those who receive it. In 2022, microinsurance products covered up to 330 million people across 36 countries, equal to up to 11.5% of the target population studied. In 2023, broader social-protection data showed that about 60% of the world’s population was effectively protected by a social health protection scheme. These measures cover different systems and years, so they should not be treated as one combined coverage rate.
Contents
- Global microinsurance reach
- Regional access and market capture
- Health microinsurance access
- Life and accident protection
- Agricultural insurance access
- Property and income protection
- Social health and employment coverage
Global microinsurance reach
The 2022 Landscape of Microinsurance 2023 measured products reported by participating insurers in 36 countries. It found that microinsurance covered up to 330 million people, but this represented only up to 11.5% of the low-income target population in the countries studied. An estimated 88.5% of that target population lacked insurance of any kind in 2022. The “up to” wording matters: the figure describes the upper bound of reported reach in the study, not a universal count of every insured person worldwide.
Participating insurers collected USD 5.8 billion in microinsurance premiums in 2022. The estimated microinsurance market across the 36 study countries was USD 41.4 billion, meaning the participating insurers captured an estimated 15% of market value. These are market estimates for the countries included in the Landscape, rather than a global premium total.
Life and accident products were the largest broad product group by reported reach, covering 171 million people across the study countries in 2022. Product counts and covered-person totals can overlap where one person holds more than one product, so the figures describe product-reported coverage rather than a count of unique individuals across every category.
Regional access and market capture
Asia and the Pacific had the largest reported reach among the three regions in the study, with participating providers covering up to 238 million people in 2022. Latin America and the Caribbean followed with up to 48.4 million, while Africa reached up to 44.1 million.
The reported share of the target population covered was up to 11.9% in both Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean, compared with up to 9.4% in Africa. Market size and insurer capture also differed by region.
| Region | People reached | Target population covered | Estimated market value | Participating insurers’ capture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | Up to 44.1 million | Up to 9.4% | USD 6.9 billion | 6% |
| Asia and the Pacific | Up to 238 million | Up to 11.9% | USD 25.1 billion | 21% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | Up to 48.4 million | Up to 11.9% | Not reported in the supplied regional figures | 8% |
The Landscape also reported a sharp change among products that reported in all four years: covered clients fell to 15.9 million in 2020 and then rose to 35.4 million in 2021. That series is limited to products reporting throughout the four-year period and should not be read as a complete annual market total.
Health microinsurance access
Health access remained limited relative to the estimated potential market. Eighty-two health microinsurance products reported coverage of 13 million people in 2022. Health products represented 22% of all people covered by products registered in the 2022 study. Regional coverage was 6.2 million people in Africa, 5.7 million in Asia and the Pacific, and 1.1 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Health microinsurance premiums totaled USD 48 million in 2022. Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for USD 22.2 million, Africa for USD 18.9 million, and Asia and the Pacific for USD 7 million. The median health premium per person covered declined from USD 11.20 in 2021 to USD 9.30 in 2022.
The study estimated the health microinsurance market across its study countries at USD 19 billion in 2022. Recorded health products penetrated 0.3% of that potential health microinsurance market. Penetration varied by region: 0.78% in Africa, 0.15% in Asia and the Pacific, and 0.24% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Coverage also varied by product design. Medical-expense and surgery products covered 42 million people in 2022, while hospital-cash products covered 35 million. These product totals are not necessarily unique-person totals because a person can be covered by more than one type of product.
Distribution channels shaped access in Africa. Agents and brokers reached almost 5 million health microinsurance customers in 2022, compared with 110,243 customers reached through financial institutions. The figures identify reported channel reach, not the quality, affordability, or continuity of the coverage.
Life and accident protection
Life and accident products combined broad reach with substantial premium volume. Individual life and accident products averaged 14,482 people covered per product in 2022, and their average reach was 75% higher than in 2021. The product group collected USD 1.14 billion in premiums in 2022.
Premiums varied across regions. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded USD 581 million, Asia and the Pacific USD 312 million, and Africa USD 250 million. Within the product group, life insurance accounted for USD 726 million and credit-life products for USD 159 million in premiums.
The median premium per life covered was USD 10.30 for life and accident products. By product type, the median was USD 12.93 for life insurance, USD 9.18 for funeral insurance, USD 6.86 for credit life, and USD 5.88 for personal accident. The median premium-to-sum-insured ratio was 1.5% in 2022.
Gender representation was relatively balanced among reported policyholders and covered lives: women represented 48% of policyholders and 49% of lives covered in life and accident microinsurance. These figures describe representation in the reported portfolio; they do not measure equality of benefit levels, claims outcomes, or access to every product.
Agricultural insurance access
Agriculture, aquaculture, and livestock insurance products reached 33.6 million people through 85 products in 2022. Agricultural products covered 29 million people in Asia and the Pacific, 3.6 million in Africa, and 1 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. Together, these products represented 10% of all people covered in the 2022 study.
One major scheme accounted for a large share of agricultural reach: India’s PMFBY crop-insurance scheme covered almost 27.8 million people in 2022. ACRE Africa covered 300,000 farmers in the same year. These scheme figures sit within the broader agricultural totals and should not be added to them without checking for overlap.
Subsidies were part of the access picture. Eleven percent of agriculture schemes recorded in the study were fully subsidized in 2022. The fully subsidized share was 50% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 16% in Asia and the Pacific, and 2% in Africa. A subsidized scheme can reduce the price paid by a customer, but the supplied figures do not measure affordability, renewal, claims, or the size of the subsidy.
Property and income protection
Direct property and income products covered approximately 2.4 million people in 2022. Regional reach was 1.1 million people in Asia and the Pacific, 728,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 564,000 in Africa. Direct property products represented 0.5% of all people recorded as covered by microinsurance in the study.
The wider property-risk picture was larger. Additional property risks covered approximately 10.6 million people in 2022, including 8.2 million in Asia and the Pacific, 2.1 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 0.3 million in Africa. Combining direct and additional categories, almost 13 million people received property or income-risk protection through microinsurance, equal to 4% of all people covered by registered microinsurance products.
The study recorded 111 property and income products: 12 business-interruption products, 40 car or motorcycle products, and 59 property products. The categories describe the products recorded, while the covered-person totals describe reported reach; they do not establish that every product category had the same definition of a covered person.
Social health and employment coverage
Broader social-protection statistics place microinsurance access within a wider insurance and benefit environment. A legal review of 164 countries found that 83.6% of the global population was legally entitled to healthcare services without hardship in 2023. Effective protection was lower: about 60% of the world’s population was effectively protected by a social health protection scheme. In low-income countries, more than four in five people were unprotected by social health protection schemes in 2023.
Employment-related protection also varied sharply by region. Globally, 37.4% of workers received employment-injury benefits in 2023. Coverage was 79.3% in Europe and Central Asia, 60.8% in the Americas, 28.5% in Asia and the Pacific, 25.7% in the Arab States, and 16.5% in Africa.
The scale of informal work helps explain why access remains difficult. More than 2 billion people were in informal employment in 2023, representing 57.8% of the workforce. Informal employment affected 55.2% of women and 59.6% of men. The figures measure employment status, not insurance status, but they identify a large workforce less likely to be reached through formal employer-linked arrangements.
Pension access showed another gap between participation and later receipt. Globally, 58.5% of the labour force actively contributed to a pension scheme in 2023. Active contribution coverage was 9.7% in sub-Saharan Africa, 91.0% in Eastern Europe, and 99.3% in Northern America. Despite the uneven contribution base, 79.6% of people above retirement age received a pension globally in 2023. These legal, effective, contribution, and receipt measures capture different stages of protection and should be interpreted separately.