The European insurance industry recorded gross written premium (GWP) of more than €1.1 trillion ($1.58 trillion) last year, according to Insurance Europe.

The region’s industry is the largest in the world, accounting for 33% of the global insurance market. North America is second with 30%, followed by Asia on 29%.

Life premium accounted for €651 billion ($937 billion) in the calendar year, with non-life premium of €452 billion ($651 billion), the figures show.

Benefits and claims paid totalled €959 billion ($1.38 trillion).

“Life insurers paid out €646 billion ($930 billion) in benefits to insureds… providing them with capital, annuities, pension revenue and death benefits,” the report said.

“Non-life insurers paid out €313 billion ($451 billion) in claims… of which about €100 billion ($144 billion) was for motor insurance, €92 billion ($132 billion) for health insurance and almost €53 billion ($76 billion) for property insurance claims.”

The premium to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio increased slightly to 7.7% last year.

However, it varies between countries, ranging from 1.3% in Romania to 13.2% in the UK.

The average spend per capita was €1860 ($2679), compared with €1539 ($2216) 10 years earlier.

Of that spend, €1098 ($1581) was on life insurance and €762 ($1097) on non-life.

The insurance sector has the largest pool of investment funds in the EU, with almost €8.4 trillion ($12.09 trillion) invested in the global economy last year – equal to 58% of the EU’s GDP.

More than 5300 insurance companies operated in Europe in the year, employing more than 930,000 people directly. There were about 1 million outsourced employees and independent intermediaries.

Insurance Europe is a federation of the region’s insurance associations.