The U.S. property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry achieved its strongest underwriting performance in over a decade in 2024. The industry’s aggregated net combined ratio fell to 96.5%, the best result since 2013, when it was 96.2%. This marks a significant improvement compared to a net combined ratio of 101.6% in 2023.
Improved Results Driven by Personal Lines
The enhanced performance was primarily attributed to improved underwriting outcomes in personal lines. These include private auto, homeowners, and farmowners insurance.
- Personal lines net combined ratio: 96.7% in 2024, an improvement of roughly 10 percentage points year over year.
- Homeowners insurance: Achieved its first underwriting profit since 2019. The net combined ratio improved from 110.9% in 2023 to 99.7% in 2024.
- Flood-related losses: The federal flood insurance line reported $7.71 billion in direct incurred losses, up from $1.74 billion in 2023. Losses due to flooding are typically not covered under standard homeowners policies.
- Private auto insurance: The net combined ratio decreased to 95.3% in 2024 from a high of 112.2% in 2022, aided by rate increases.
Commercial Lines Performance: Mixed Outcomes
Commercial business lines reported a net combined ratio of 96.3% in 2024, a marginal increase from 96.2% in 2023.
Liability Coverage Results
- Other liability: Net combined ratio rose to 110.1%, the highest since 2016 (110.9%). This line includes general liability, commercial excess and umbrella, errors and omissions, and cyber insurance.
- Product liability: Increased to 107.9% in 2024 from 99.8% in 2023.
- Commercial multi-peril liability: Rose to 114.9% from 110.1%. The last sub-100% ratio for this line was recorded in 2015.
- Medical professional liability: Improved to 103.0% from 109.8% the prior year.
Auto and Property Coverage Results
- Commercial auto: Combined ratio improved to 107.2% in 2024, a 2.1 percentage point year-over-year gain.
- Physical damage coverage: Reported a net combined ratio of 88.6%, improving by 7.6 percentage points from 2023.
- Auto liability: Slight improvement to 113.0% from 113.4%.
- Commercial property: All sub-lines showed year-over-year improvements:
- Fire: Combined ratio decreased by 9.0 percentage points to 77.2%.
- Commercial multi-peril non-liability: Decreased by 13.8 percentage points to 91.6%.
- Allied lines: Net combined ratio of 93.2%.
Workers’ Compensation Remains Stable
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Workers’ compensation: Continued to be profitable with a net combined ratio of 88.8% in 2024, slightly up from 88.1% in 2023.
About the Data
The statistics referenced in this report are sourced from the Insurance Expense Exhibit within the annual P&C statutory statements filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The data includes only U.S. statutory filers, though reported results may include business written outside of the U.S. where applicable. The industry-wide figures represent consolidated results from individual filers and were compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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