Middle East North Africa Property & Casualty Life & Health
Morocco tops the MENA region in terms of total insurance penetration, and life insurance penetration. This is despite the fact that in terms of premium volume, the country ranks as fifth largest in the region.
The UAE, which has the biggest insurance market in the region, ranks second in terms of penetration, according to the Swiss Re Institute’s sigma report “World insurance: riding out the 2020 pandemic storm”.
The report also shows that among 13 MENA countries listed in the report, Jordan and Oman saw a lower penetration rate in 2019 compared to 2018. The others reflected a higher penetration rate in 2019. For Egypt, while the overall penetration rate was unchanged from 2018 to 2019, life business reported a higher rate while that for non-life business dipped.
Overall, the 14 insurance markets had penetration rates lower than the world average.
The following table shows the insurance penetration rates of countries in MENA:
| World Ranking | Country | 2019 | 2018 | |||||
| 2019 | 2018 | Total | Life | Non-life | Total | Life | Non-life | |
| 41 | 42 | Morocco | **3.89 | **1.75 | **2.14 | *3.88 | *1.82 | *2.06 |
| 43 | 45 | UAE | *3.13 | *0.65 | *2.47 | *2.92 | *0.67 | *2.25 |
| 44 | 44 | Lebanon | +2.85 | +0.83 | +2.01 | *2.95 | *0.96 | *1.98 |
| 49 | 63 | Iran | *2.66 | *0.42 | *2.24 | *2.01 | *0.26 | *1.75 |
| 60 | 61 | Tunisia | **2.15 | **0.46 | **0.46 | **2.14 | **0.46 | **1.69 |
| 63 | 66 | Bahrain | *1.95 | *0.34 | *1.61 | *1.83 | *0.36 | *1.47 |
| 65 | 62 | Jordan | **1.89 | **0.26 | **1.63 | *2.06 | *0.28 | *1.78 |
| 71 | 75 | Turkey | *1.45 | *0.22 | *1.23 | 1.33 | 0.18 | 1.15 |
| 73 | 72 | Oman | *1.32 | *0.18 | *1.15 | *1.47 | 0*.21 | *1.27 |
| 74 | 77 | Saudi Arabia | +1.27 | +0.03 | +1.24 | *1.21 | *0.04 | *1.17 |
| 78 | 80 | Kuwait | *0.98 | *0.13 | *0.85 | *1.00 | *0.12 | *0.87 |
| 80 | 82 | Algeria | **0.74 | **0.07 | **0.67 | 0.68 | 0.06 | 0.62 |
| 82 | 88 | Qatar | *0.72 | *0.03 | *0.69 | NA | NA | *1.61 |
| 84 | 83 | Egypt | 0.63 | 0.29 | 0.34 | *0.63 | *0.27 | *0.36 |
| World | 7.23 | 3.35 | 3.88 | 6.09 | 3.31 | 2.78 |
+ provisional * estimated
** estimated USD value assuming constant insurance penetration
Source: Swiss Re Institute, sigma report “World insurance: riding out the 2020 pandemic storm”
Source: Middle East Insurance Review
