Insurance exclusion remains substantial across the markets covered by the Landscape of Microinsurance 2024. In 2023, reported products covered 344 million people across 37 countries, but that represented just 11.5% of the estimated target population. The remaining 88.5% was outside reported reach. These figures describe voluntary, self-declared provider data, and one person may be counted more than once when holding multiple products.
Contents
- Global scale and the protection gap
- Regional coverage and market concentration
- Health microinsurance exclusion
- Life, accident, and funeral insurance
- Agriculture and climate-risk insurance
- Property, income, and catastrophe protection
Global scale and the protection gap
The 2024 Landscape recorded 985 microinsurance products in its 2023 dataset. Together, reported products generated USD 6.2 billion in written premiums and covered 344 million people across the 37 focus countries. Coverage increased 70% over the three years from 2020 to 2023. For 196 products that reported in every year from 2021 through 2023, net premiums rose by more than 50% during that period. (Source: The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024.)
The scale of exclusion becomes clearer when reported reach is compared with the estimated market. The target population in the focus countries was 2,988.8 million people in 2023, while the estimated market value was USD 40.6 billion. Reported coverage reached 11.5% of that target population, and reported premiums represented 15% of the estimated market value. The weighted-average premium per person covered across all focus regions was USD 13. These are market estimates, not national census totals.
The overall figures should therefore be read as maximum reported lives rather than unique individuals. The Landscape uses voluntary, self-declared provider data, and a person can appear more than once if they hold multiple products. The target-market estimates use low- and middle-income populations; agriculture uses rural population as a proxy for its target market. (Source: The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024.)
Regional coverage and market concentration
Asia and the Pacific accounted for 268.2 million reported covered people in 2023. Africa accounted for 38.1 million, and Latin America and the Caribbean for 37.3 million. Coverage rates relative to estimated target populations were 12.7% in Asia and the Pacific, 8.2% in Africa, and 9.2% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Premium capture differed even more sharply across regions:
| Region | Reported people covered | Share of estimated market value captured |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 38.1 million | 4% |
| Asia and the Pacific | 268.2 million | 36% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 37.3 million | 5% |
These regional market-value shares indicate different degrees of development and concentration, but they do not establish that every person in a region has equivalent access or protection. In 2023, Africa captured 4% of its estimated microinsurance market value through reported premiums, compared with 36% in Asia and the Pacific and 5% in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Source: The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024.)
Zimbabwe illustrates why penetration needs careful interpretation. It recorded the highest reported microinsurance penetration, at 122% of its low- and middle-income population in 2023. The Landscape notes that this was partly due to multiple funeral policies, so the percentage should not be interpreted as 122% of unique people with comprehensive coverage. The same measurement issue applies more broadly whenever product counts are translated into people covered.
Health microinsurance exclusion
Health is one of the clearest areas of exclusion. Health coverage from any reported microinsurance product reached 41 million people in the focus countries in 2023. The 99 health microinsurance products in the dataset jointly reached more than 15 million people, while the estimated health microinsurance target population was 3 billion people. On the Landscape’s measure, health microinsurance reached only 1.4% of the estimated target population.
The premium gap was also wide. The estimated health microinsurance market was worth USD 30.1 billion in premiums in 2023, but health microinsurance premiums captured only 0.3% of that estimated market. This percentage is a market-value estimate, not a measure of the quality or adequacy of the cover purchased by the people who were reached.
Regional product coverage was uneven. Health products in Asia and the Pacific directly covered 10.1 million people in 2023, compared with 4.5 million in Africa and 0.7 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hospital-cash products covered 7.7 million people, around half of all people covered by health microinsurance products. The concentration in hospital-cash products is important when interpreting the broader health figure: coverage of a defined cash benefit is not the same measurement as comprehensive medical protection.
All health figures above refer to 2023 reported products and the estimated target market in the focus countries. The underlying provider data is voluntary and self-declared. (Source: The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024.)
Life, accident, and funeral insurance
Life and accident insurance products reached 9.4% of the estimated target population in 2023, regardless of product type. The estimated life-and-accident microinsurance market was worth USD 28.9 billion in premiums, while reported life-and-accident premiums represented 7.6% of that estimated market value.
Product scale varied considerably. A life-and-accident product covered a median of 12,300 people and collected median premiums of USD 141,500 in 2023. Credit-life products covered a median of 29,000 people per product, and funeral products covered a median of 28,200. Investment-and-savings products were smaller by this measure, covering a median of 4,100 people per product.
Life insurance generated USD 1.8 billion in premiums in the focus countries in 2023. Distribution and lending arrangements shaped access: credit-life products were mandatory in 58% of reported cases, while life products were mandatory in 19%. These figures describe the share of reported cases with mandatory participation; they do not show whether the resulting cover was sufficient for a household’s financial needs.
The median product-level figures also show why aggregate coverage can mask differences in product design. A large credit-linked or funeral portfolio can reach many people while offering a narrow, event-specific benefit. (Source: The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024.)
Agriculture and climate-risk insurance
Agriculture, aquaculture, and livestock microinsurance covered 42.5 million people in the focus countries in 2023. Against the rural-population proxy used for its target market, agriculture microinsurance reached 2.1%. The estimated agriculture microinsurance market was worth USD 51 billion in premiums, while reported agriculture-insurance premiums captured 7.3% of that estimated market.
Coverage was highly concentrated in India’s PMFBY crop-insurance scheme. PMFBY covered almost 37.5 million people in 2023, equal to 88% of reported agriculture-insurance coverage. This concentration means the global agriculture total should not be treated as evenly distributed across farmers or countries.
Climate and disaster exposure dominated product design. Climate, natural-peril, and disaster risks were the main cover for 79% of reported agriculture products in 2023. Index-based products represented 52% of reported agriculture microinsurance products. Some level of subsidy applied to 58% of reported agriculture products, and subsidised products were responsible for 97% of all people covered by agriculture microinsurance.
Claims outcomes provide additional context. The median claims ratio for agriculture microinsurance was 33% in 2023, compared with 23% across all microinsurance product lines. The claims ratio is a product-performance measure; it is not a direct estimate of the share of agricultural losses insured. (Source: The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024.)
Property, income, and catastrophe protection
Property-and-income microinsurance reached only 1% of its estimated target population in the focus countries in 2023. The estimated property-and-income market was worth USD 44 billion in premiums, but reported premiums captured only 0.3% of that estimated market. Property-and-income products covered a median of 6,100 people per product.
Motor products were larger by product-level reach, covering a median of 12,400 people and collecting median gross premiums of USD 455,500 per product in 2023. For property-and-income microinsurance overall, the median claims ratio was 22%, and the median claims-acceptance rate was 97%. Twenty products covering nearly 320,000 people reported climate perils as their primary risk.
Broader catastrophe statistics show that exclusion extends beyond microinsurance. Swiss Re Institute reported that 80%–90% of natural-catastrophe losses in emerging economies remained uninsured in 2025. This protection-gap measure concerns catastrophe losses and is not directly comparable with microinsurance people-covered measures. (Source: Swiss Re Institute sigma No 1/2026: Natural catastrophes in 2025.)
A peril-specific example comes from California’s residential property market. Only 12% of residential property insurance policies included earthquake coverage in 2024, leaving USD 4.6 trillion of residential exposure without that coverage. This is a California property-policy statistic, not a microinsurance estimate, and it should not be combined arithmetically with the focus-country figures. (Source: Swiss Re Institute sigma No 1/2026: Natural catastrophes in 2025.)