UAE Insurance Premiums Rose 14.9% to Dh74.8 Billion in 2025 as Industry Profit Climbed to Dh4 Billion and Health Became the Largest Line, Central Bank Figures Show

The Central Bank of the UAE, which regulates insurance in the country, has published its annual statistical report for 2025. Khaleej Times reported the main insurance figures on August 25, 2026, and the details in this article come from that report. The central bank's own report was not reviewed. Other outlets reported the same data with different rounding and asset totals, and this article uses the Khaleej Times figures throughout, noting where that report is internally inconsistent.

Premium growth

According to the report, gross written premiums, the total premiums booked before reinsurance, rose 14.9% year on year to Dh74.8 billion in 2025. By broad category, property and liability premiums rose 14.1% to Dh36.4 billion, health premiums rose 16.3% to Dh30 billion, and life and fund accumulation premiums rose 12.1% to Dh8.4 billion. Adding the three figures, a calculation made here, gives Dh74.8 billion, which matches the total. The report also says health was the largest single line at Dh36.42 billion when national and foreign insurers are combined, with motor and transport generating about Dh10.08 billion and fire about Dh6.89 billion. The report gives two different health figures, Dh30 billion and Dh36.42 billion, and does not explain the gap. It may reflect different scopes or definitions, so the larger and smaller numbers should not be added together or compared without checking the central bank's tables.

Health insurance and policy counts

The report notes that mandatory basic health insurance for private-sector employees and domestic workers took effect across the emirates on January 1, 2025. Total policies reached 17.3 million, up from 17.2 million in 2024. Health policies rose 26.1%. The small rise in total policies despite a large increase in health policies suggests that other categories shrank, but the report does not say which; that observation is an inference from the two figures.

Claims and loss ratios

Insurers paid Dh46.2 billion in claims, an increase of 11%. Health claims rose 15.1% and property and liability claims rose 13.8%. Marine claims rose 34.7% and fire claims rose 27.4%. Those last two categories grew faster than premiums, although the report does not give their size. The gross loss ratio, which compares claims with premiums, improved to 65.1% from 68.9%, and the health loss ratio eased to 75.3% from 77.4%. Premiums grew faster than claims, 14.9% against 11%, which is consistent with an improving ratio. The 65.1% is the central bank's own measure and is not simply claims paid divided by premiums: Dh46.2 billion over Dh74.8 billion is about 61.8%, a calculation made here, so the definitions differ.

Profit, assets and capital

Industry profit rose to Dh4 billion from Dh2.6 billion. The report says the increase was mainly due to higher net investment income, which means the profit improvement came more from investments than from underwriting. A simple calculation shows profit grew about 54%, from 2.6 to 4.0 (4.0 divided by 2.6 is 1.54). Invested assets grew 13.5% to Dh96.4 billion, which is 58.4% of total assets and compares with Dh84.9 billion the year before. Securities and debt instruments totalled Dh43.7 billion, and cash and deposits totalled Dh27 billion. From the share of total assets, total assets work out at about Dh165 billion (96.4 divided by 0.584), a derived figure that is consistent with the roughly Dh164.9 billion reported elsewhere for the sector but is not stated in the Khaleej Times article. The solvency capital requirement ratio rose to 199% from 196%, which means the industry as a whole held about twice the regulatory capital requirement.

Market structure

The report counts 58 insurers operating in 2025: 22 national traditional insurers, 10 national takaful companies and 26 foreign branches. Takaful is Islamic insurance based on mutual contribution. Licensed insurance-related professions, such as brokers and actuaries, rose to 515 from 495.

What the figures do and do not show

Three observations follow. First, growth was broad: all categories grew by 12% or more. Second, profitability improved, but with investment income as the main driver, so the results depend on financial markets as well as on underwriting. Third, the industry's capital position strengthened slightly. The report does not give profit by company, does not split premium by emirate and does not say how much of the health growth came from the new mandatory rules compared with price increases. It also does not say how much premium was ceded to reinsurers, so net premium retained is unknown.

Questions for the full report

Anyone using these numbers for analysis should check three things in the central bank's own tables: how the two health premium figures are defined, how the loss ratio is calculated and whether premiums are gross or net of reinsurance in each table. They should also look at whether takaful and conventional insurers are shown separately, since the Khaleej Times account gives counts of each but no split of premiums between them.

Limits

This article relies on one newspaper's account of a central bank report, which contains an unexplained discrepancy in the health premium figures. Derived figures are marked as calculated here. It is general information, not investment advice.