Resources
New Zealand insurance statistics
Updated August 2026. Every figure traced to a primary source.
Kapi Insurance compiled these statistics from ICNZ, Stats NZ, NZ Police, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Justice, the Treasury and the Natural Hazards Commission. They cover the questions we get asked most about car insurance, home insurance and contents insurance in New Zealand.
Journalists, researchers and students are welcome to use any figure on this page. Each one carries a numbered reference to the source list, and there is a ready-made citation at the bottom.
$10.5 billion
Gross written premium across NZ general insurance in 2025 [1]
$9.23 billion
Gross incurred claims in 2023, double a normal year [1]
+28%
Peak annual rise in contents insurance prices, March 2024 quarter [5]
$4.16 billion
Insured losses from natural disasters in 2023, inflation adjusted [2]
How much did insurance prices rise in New Zealand?
Insurance prices rose faster in 2023 and 2024 than at any other point in the decade. Contents insurance peaked at 28 percent annual growth in the March 2024 quarter, with house insurance at 24.6 percent and vehicle insurance at 23.7 percent. By mid 2026 all three had fallen to roughly zero. [4] [5] [6]
Annual percentage change in the CPI class, quarterly, March 2016 to June 2026. Source: Stats NZ consumers price index, level 3 classes. Hover or tap the chart to read any quarter.
+24%
rise in the cheapest available online house insurance premiums between October 2022 and April 2024, per Treasury monitoring [7]
~30%
increase in global reinsurance premiums after the 2023 weather events, which ICNZ links to the premium surge [3]
-4.0%
annual change in contents insurance prices by the June 2026 quarter: prices are now falling. If your renewal has not, our loyalty tax guide explains why [5]
How big is New Zealand's insurance market?
New Zealand's general insurance market wrote $10.55 billion in gross premium in 2025, after peaking at $10.79 billion in 2024. The market grew 43 percent between 2021 and 2024, driven largely by premium increases rather than new customers. Motor insurance is the largest class at 32.3 percent of premium, with home and contents close behind at 30.6 percent. [1]
What insurers collected [1]
Gross written premium by year
Premium grew 43% in three years, then dipped slightly in 2025 as price rises stalled.
What insurers paid out [1]
Gross incurred claims by year
The dark bar is 2023: the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle doubled a normal claims year.
95%+
of NZ general insurance is written by ICNZ's 22 member insurers, protecting over $2 trillion of New Zealanders' assets [3]
$2.6 billion
in levies and GST paid by customers through general insurance premiums in 2024 [3]
$1.2 billion
saved through fraud detection over 2020 to 2023, with about 1 in 10 claims flagged as potentially fraudulent in 2023 [3]
87%
average combined ratio of NZ general insurers over 2020 to 2024, meaning claims and costs ate 87 cents of every premium dollar [3]
Numbers are useful. The right cover is better.
Kapi Insurance is an Auckland-based insurance broker that finds you the right cover for your car, home and contents. The insurer pays us a commission when we arrange your cover, and your premium is the same as going direct.
What do the theft, disaster and road statistics show?
The Toyota Aqua was New Zealand's most stolen car in 2025 for the fourth year running, natural disasters have caused more than $31 billion in claims since 2010, and road deaths fell to their lowest per-capita rate in about a century. The highlights are below, with a dedicated statistics page for each topic. [9] [3] [13]
Car theft
The most stolen cars, theft rates by model, regions and recovery rates.
- 54 per 1,000 insured Toyota Aquas attracted a theft claim in 2025 [9]
- +47% more households hit by vehicle theft in a single year [10]
- 64% of stolen vehicles were recovered [9]
Natural disasters
What every major event cost insurers, from the Canterbury earthquakes to Cyclone Gabrielle.
- ~$32 billion Canterbury earthquakes in today's dollars, NZ's costliest event [2]
- 118,000+ claims from the 2023 floods and Cyclone Gabrielle [2]
- $12.3 billion record NHC reinsurance held from June 2026 [8]
Burglary and home risks
How many households get burgled, what the fire data shows, and the cover gaps.
- 9% of households (184,000) burgled in the year to October 2025 [11]
- 40% of attended house fires had no smoke alarms [17]
- 750,000 people live in areas exposed to extreme inland flooding [18]
Roads and the fleet
Road deaths at a century low, driving a fleet older than almost any comparable country.
- 272 provisional road deaths in 2025, 5.1 per 100,000 people [12]
- 15.3 years average age of a light passenger vehicle [15]
- ~100,000 fully electric vehicles on the road as at mid 2026 [16]
How underinsured are New Zealand households?
Between 84 and 98 percent of New Zealand homes are insured depending on the data source, among the highest rates in the world, but Treasury analysis has estimated up to 85 percent of those homes are underinsured for a full rebuild. [7]
Up to 85%
of NZ homes estimated to be underinsured for a full rebuild, per Treasury analysis [7]
84% to 98%
of homes hold house insurance, with uptake slowly declining as prices rose [7]
$345,000
NHCover cap (including GST) per home per natural hazard event, through the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake [8]
How many insurance complaints are made in New Zealand?
The Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme accepted 600 disputes for investigation in the year to June 2025, a record for the second year running, after 479 in 2024. Insurance made up 96 percent of them, led by house insurance (24 percent), motor vehicle (19 percent) and travel (18 percent). [19] [20]
Set against the volume of claims, disputes stay rare. ICNZ members received 1.23 million claims in 2024, and 462 were referred to external dispute resolution: fewer than 4 in 10,000. [3]
IFSO Scheme complaint outcomes, year to June 2024 [19]
- Complaints not upheld 77%
- Settled between the parties 17%
- Upheld or partly upheld 5%
- Average time to close a complaint 60 days
Of 444 complaints closed in the year. Payments to consumers across 52 complaints totalled about $1.2 million. Kapi Insurance is a member of the IFSO Scheme (membership 5008525); our complaints process explains how it works.
Sources
Every figure above references one of the primary sources below. You are welcome to reuse any of them; a link back helps other readers find the full context. We update the page as new data is released, and if you spot an error, email hello@kapiinsurance.co.nz and we will correct it.
- [1] ICNZ, insurance industry market data
- [2] ICNZ, cost of natural disasters database
- [3] ICNZ, Annual Review 2024 (PDF)
- [4] Stats NZ consumers price index, dwelling insurance class (series via Figure.NZ)
- [5] Stats NZ consumers price index, contents insurance class (series via Figure.NZ)
- [6] Stats NZ consumers price index, vehicle insurance class (series via Figure.NZ)
- [7] The Treasury, insurance update T2023/2206 (PDF)
- [8] Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake, about NHCover
- [9] AMI, top 10 stolen cars 2025 (press release)
- [10] Ministry of Justice, NZ Crime and Victims Survey, June 2024 results
- [11] Ministry of Justice, NZ Crime and Victims Survey, March 2026 release
- [12] NZ Police, road deaths end-of-year release, January 2026
- [13] AA, road deaths media release, 2026
- [14] Ministry of Transport, social cost of road crashes
- [15] EHINZ (Massey University), average age of motor vehicles, Ministry of Transport data (PDF)
- [16] EVDB, NZ EV fleet data
- [17] Fire and Emergency NZ, smoke alarm statistics
- [18] NIWA, national flood exposure study
- [19] IFSO Scheme, Annual Report 2024 (PDF)
- [20] IFSO Scheme, Annual Report 2025
Want cover that matches the numbers?
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