States Seek Detailed Insurance Data to Examine Climate-Driven Market Pressures

State insurance regulators across the United States are launching a nationwide data-collection effort to better understand how climate-related risks are affecting the property insurance market. The initiative, overseen by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), will require insurers to submit internal records detailing claims and losses tied to events such as wildfires and storms at the ZIP code level.

The effort reflects growing concern among regulators about rising premiums and reduced availability of property insurance coverage. Officials say these trends are linked, in part, to increasingly severe weather events. However, regulators have historically lacked a comprehensive system to track how these factors affect insurance markets nationwide.

To address this gap, the NAIC is expanding on a smaller data collection conducted in 2024 in collaboration with the U.S. Treasury Department. The new initiative will include more states, a broader range of policy types, and additional insurers. It will cover homeowners’ policies as well as insurance for rental properties, mobile homes, and condominiums. Smaller insurers will also be included, increasing the scope of the dataset.

According to NAIC President Scott White, the updated data call is expected to capture approximately 98 percent of the market in most states, compared to about 80 percent in the earlier effort. Regulators have requested 12 categories of data related to home insurance business from 2018 through 2025.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky, who is leading the initiative, said the collected data will give regulators more tools to evaluate market conditions and better prepare for severe weather. He also noted that a standardized national dataset will allow for more consistent comparisons across states.

The initiative comes as insurance departments report varying levels of capability in collecting detailed market data. Former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said the lack of ZIP code-level information has been an ongoing challenge, limiting regulators’ ability to fully assess how climate-related risks influence pricing and availability.

Examples from recent events highlight the value of more detailed data. After a tornado struck St. Louis in 2025, Missouri regulators used available information to determine that up to 70 percent of property owners in certain affected ZIP codes lacked insurance coverage. Officials noted that this insight came despite limited existing data.

Regulators say the expanded dataset could help identify vulnerabilities in insurance markets and uncover patterns that were previously difficult to detect. Some have suggested that the data collection could become an annual process.

However, the initiative has raised questions about data transparency. The NAIC has committed to sharing full datasets with state regulators and releasing a public report in 2027. At the same time, insurers have expressed concerns that even anonymized ZIP-code-level data could expose sensitive business information.

Participation in the data call is not mandatory. Some states, including Alabama and Tennessee, have opted out. In the 2024 effort, several states provided partial or no data, reflecting ongoing variability in participation across jurisdictions.

As regulators move forward, the initiative represents a significant step toward developing a more detailed and standardized understanding of property insurance markets nationwide.