Increasing costs and an ageing population are likely to slow down the growth rate of South Korean insurance industry in 2027, according to a new report.
The new report "2027 Insurance Industry Outlook and Challenges” released by the Korean Insurance Research Institute (KIRI) on 22 October 2026 estimates that the domestic insurance industry is likely to grow by 3.5% in 2027, slowing sharply from the current year’s expected 8% growth. This will be second successive year of the industry’s growth slow down. In 2025 the industry had grown by 11%.
According to a news report published in BigGoFinance.com, the KIRI research report has projected that in 2027, the industry’s total premium income (including retirement pensions) would reach KRW299tn ($225.6bn), registering a growth of 3.5% over the 8% estimated for 2026. This would make the growth shrink to less than half.
The report revealed that the life insurance sector is forecast to grow 2.3% in 2027, and the non-life insurance segment is projected to expand by 4.5%. South Korea's insurance industry has been struggling with lacklustre growth for years as demand for insurance policies has fallen amid low interest rates and a slowing economy.
The report cites product standardisation, worsening risk margins, the required-capital burden from rising contractual service margins, and tighter sales and solvency regulation as the factors that would hinder the growth of the industry. Another limitation cited is that, with sales channels concentrated in corporate insurance agencies, the only point of differentiation is recruitment commissions.
KIRI President Kim Heon-su said, "Sustainable growth is determined not by sales capability but by the size of risk an insurer can bear. We must strengthen our risk management capabilities to fill protection gaps and achieve growth that consumers can feel."
The report suggests that insurance companies should raise the quality of their profit structure rather than focusing on the growth rate itself. With most of the premium increase concentrated in protection-type products, insurance profit and loss will be hard to improve even as the top line grows unless risk margins escape negative territory.
The report said it is important to build a shared data foundation for new risk areas such as AI, cyber and climate.