Average insurance cost in Australia in 2026

Key figures

Official ABS index data

+73% vs +30%

Growth in the ABS Insurance CPI compared with the Wage Price Index, March 2016 to March 2026

Official Australian Government data

4.41%

Approved industry-average private health insurance premium increase from 1 April 2026

Official ABS data

5.5%

Annual rise in the ABS Insurance expenditure class in the twelve months to May 2026

Official ABS benchmark

2015–16

Latest ABS Household Expenditure Survey directly measuring average household insurance spending

Insurance prices have risen much faster than wages over the past decade. The ABS Insurance Consumer Price Index increased by approximately 73% between March 2016 and March 2026, compared with approximately 30% growth in the Wage Price Index. Private health insurance premiums also rose by an approved industry average of 4.41% from 1 April 2026.

About the data

No newer ABS household expenditure survey has replaced the 2015–16 benchmark. This article therefore uses official ABS, APRA and Australian Government data to show how insurance prices and premiums have changed since then. Any current-dollar figure is labelled as a modelled estimate, published average or proxy calculation. It is not an official 2026 household spending figure.

Section 01Insurance types

What types of insurance do Australian households pay for?

Australian households may pay for several types of insurance, including private health, motor vehicle, home building, contents, landlord, life, income protection, travel and pet insurance.

Compulsory third-party motor injury insurance is required to register and drive a car, although payment arrangements differ between states and territories. Other forms of household insurance are generally optional, but some may be required as a condition of a loan.

APRA supervises registered general insurers, life insurers and private health insurers in Australia. ASIC's Moneysmart service provides Australian Government consumer information about how different insurance products work.

Health insurance

Supplements Medicare: hospital cover pays for private patient treatment, extras cover pays for services Medicare doesn't, like dental, physio and optical.

Bought for faster access to private hospital care, or to avoid the Medicare Levy Surcharge and Lifetime Health Cover loading.

Optional

Motor vehicle insurance

CTP covers injuries to other people in an accident; optional cover ranges from property damage up to comprehensive, which also protects the policyholder's own car.

CTP ("Green Slip" in NSW) is required to register any vehicle; optional cover protects against costly repair or replacement bills.

Compulsory (CTP)

Home building insurance

Covers the physical structure of a home – walls, roof, fixed cabinetry – against events like fire and storm.

Protects a household's biggest asset; mortgage lenders generally require it as a condition of the loan.

Lender requirement

Home contents insurance

Covers belongings inside the home – furniture, appliances, clothing – rather than the building itself.

Replaces possessions lost to theft, fire or damage; renters can buy it stand-alone, without building cover.

Optional

Landlord insurance

Extends building and/or contents cover to risks specific to renting out a property.

Protects rental income and covers costs like malicious tenant damage that standard home cover excludes.

Optional

Life insurance

Pays a lump sum to beneficiaries if the policyholder dies; total and permanent disability cover is often bundled in.

Helps dependants replace lost income or clear debts like a mortgage; many hold a default level via super.

Often via super

Income protection insurance

Replaces part of a person's income if illness or injury stops them working.

Keeps a household afloat during recovery; a limited version is often bundled into superannuation.

Often via super

Travel insurance

Covers overseas medical treatment, cancellations, delays and lost luggage.

Medicare generally does not cover treatment overseas. Smartraveller advises that travellers who cannot afford travel insurance cannot afford the trip.

Optional

Pet insurance

Helps cover vet bills if a pet is sick or injured.

Cushions the cost of unexpected veterinary treatment as pet healthcare costs continue to rise.

Optional

Only CTP motor insurance is legally compulsory, tied to vehicle registration in every state and territory. "Lender requirement" means it isn't compulsory by law but is generally a mortgage condition. Everything else here is a personal choice.

Section 022015–16 spend

What is the latest official benchmark for household insurance spending?

The ABS Household Expenditure Survey provides the latest official benchmark for average household insurance spending by type.

The survey collected expenditure data from Australian private households in 2015–16 and remains the most recent direct ABS measurement of this spending.

ABS

$38.56 a week

Accident and health insurance – average across all households, not only households with private health or accident cover.

ABS

$16.74 a week

House and contents insurance – average across all households, not only insured homeowners or renters with contents cover.

ABS

$4.57 a week

Life insurance – published under selected other payments, not as a housing or health cost.

Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, 2015–16.

What counts as household insurance spending?

Insurance spending is not published as one single number. It's split across four different ABS categories, each with its own name and purpose:

House and contents insurance ($16.74 a week) sits inside current housing costs
Accident and health insurance ($38.56 a week) is folded into medical care and health expenses
Life insurance is grouped with superannuation under selected other payments
Vehicle insurance is bundled with registration inside transport

Where each type of insurance sits in the household budget

ABS Household Expenditure Classification

Official data

Insurance line item	Where the ABS places it
House and contents insurance	Current housing costs
Accident and health insurance	Medical care and health expenses
Hospital, medical and dental insurance	Within accident and health insurance
Vehicle registration and insurance	Transport (combined, not a pure premium line)
Life insurance	Selected other payments
Superannuation and annuities	Selected other payments

Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, 2015–16, detailed expenditure classification.

Spending by insurance type in 2015–16

Ranked from largest to smallest, the published figures show an order: health cover first, then the vehicle line, then house and contents, with life, travel and personal belongings insurance a distant tail.

Average weekly household insurance spend in Australia, by type, 2015–16

Direct, published ABS figures

Official ABS data

Vehicle registration and insurance is shown in a different colour because it is a mixed line: it combines registration and insurance, and the ABS itself cannot cleanly split the two from the published tables.

Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, 2015–16.

Why the vehicle insurance figure is not used as a current motor premium

The ABS vehicle line should not be treated as an average motor insurance premium. The published $35.54 weekly figure combines registration and insurance costs. It includes $18.72 for motor insurance, $11.36 for combined registration and insurance that cannot be split from the published tables, and $5.46 for registration only.

For this reason, this article does not use the ABS vehicle registration and insurance line as a current motor insurance estimate. Later sections also treat the ABS Insurance Consumer Price Index carefully because that index combines house, contents and motor vehicle insurance price changes.

Insurance spending forms part of broader household budget categories that have also grown over time. The table below shows how those wider categories, including current housing costs and medical care and health expenses, where house and contents and accident and health insurance sit, changed between 2003–04 and 2015–16.

Household spending on major categories over time

Direct, published ABS figures, 2003–04 to 2015–16

Official data

Category	2003–04	2009–10	2015–16	Change since 2009–10
Current housing costs	$143.50	$223.14	$279.12	+25.1%
Medical care and health expenses	$45.78	$65.60	$82.38	+25.6%
Transport	$139.25	$192.87	$206.69	+7.2%
Superannuation and life insurance	$22.71	$73.73	$77.14	+4.6%*
Total goods and services expenditure	$892.83	$1,236.28	$1,425.03	+15.3%

Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results. *ABS notes the change in superannuation and life insurance spending over this period isn't statistically significant. Figures are nominal.

This is still the latest official ABS benchmark

These figures come from the ABS's 2015–16 Household Expenditure Survey, the most recent time the ABS directly measured what households spend on insurance. We checked the ABS release calendar and the ABS Corporate Plan 2025–26 Forward Work Program before writing this: no newer household expenditure survey has been released, and none is scheduled before the 2028–29 financial year. Until then, the 2015–16 figures on this page remain the latest official ABS benchmark available, not an assumption on our part.

Who pays more: income, tenure and household type

The gaps between different types of households are just as revealing as the totals. Higher-income households and homeowners consistently paid more in raw dollar terms – though as the budget-share note below shows, that's not the same as insurance being more affordable for everyone else.

ABS

$74.97 vs $17.04

Accident and health insurance, highest vs lowest gross household income quintile

ABS

$21.69–24.16 vs $3.01

House and contents insurance, owners vs renters

ABS

$20.06 vs $10.34

House and contents, couple with dependent children vs one-parent families with dependent children

Average weekly household insurance spend in Australia, by household group, 2015–16

Toggle between income, home ownership and household type

Official ABS data

House and contents
Accident and health
Vehicle registration and insurance
Life insurance

Lowest and highest gross household income quintiles. Life insurance is smallest at both ends of the income scale, but the dollar gap between quintiles is still wide.

Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, 2015–16, gross household income quintile, tenure and household composition data cubes.

Dollar amounts hide the budget-share story

House and contents insurance accounted for about 1.88% of the lowest income quintile's weekly budget in 2015–16, compared with 0.96% for the highest quintile, even though lower-income households spent fewer raw dollars. Across all households, house and contents insurance took up 1.17% of average weekly spending on goods and services, and accident and health insurance another 2.71%, a combined 3.88% of the weekly budget. Every one of these shares is a 2015–16 figure; no newer household budget survey exists from which to calculate an equivalent 2026 share.

Couple families with dependent children spent almost double the house and contents insurance of one-parent families, $20.06 a week against $10.34. Life insurance spending by household type wasn't separately published in the data used here, which is why it appears as a gap in the chart above rather than as zero.

Section 03Since 2016

How much have insurance prices increased since 2016?

The ABS Insurance Consumer Price Index rose 16.4% in the year to March 2024, the fastest March-quarter annual rise in this series since 2001. Annual growth then eased to 7.6% in the year to March 2025 and 4.4% in the year to March 2026 — prices were still rising, just at a slower annual rate.

The Insurance CPI is the main official trend indicator for insurance price changes, since the ABS's 2015–16 Household Expenditure Survey remains the latest direct measure of household insurance spending. The CPI "Insurance" expenditure class tracks price changes for house, contents and motor vehicle insurance. It does not measure actual household spending, and it does not cover life insurance or private health insurance.

Annual change in the ABS Insurance CPI, 2016 to 2026

Percentage change in the March quarter, year on year

Official ABS data

"Insurance" is a single ABS Consumer Price Index expenditure class covering house, contents and motor vehicle insurance. It is published in ABS Table 18 as an index number for the weighted average of eight capital cities. It sits within the broader "Insurance and financial services" group.

Source: ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia, Table 18, Insurance, weighted average of eight capital cities, March quarter data to March 2026.

Measured by index levels, the ABS Insurance CPI increased by approximately 73% between March 2016 and March 2026. This should not be described as "adding up" annual percentage changes. It is a change in the index level over the decade.

The newer monthly CPI series shows the same category was still rising in the year to May 2026. ABS data shows Insurance increased by 5.5% over the twelve months to May 2026, while the broader Insurance and financial services group rose 3.2%. The ABS attributed the insurance increase to higher premiums for motor vehicle, house and home contents insurance.

Section 04Insurance vs wages

Have insurance prices risen faster than wages in Australia?

Insurance prices have risen much faster than wages over the past decade. Comparing the ABS Insurance Consumer Price Index with the ABS Wage Price Index shows that insurance price growth has outpaced wage growth since 2016.

This is an index comparison, not a direct measure of household spending or household income. The Insurance CPI tracks price changes for house, contents and motor vehicle insurance. The Wage Price Index tracks changes in hourly wage rates, excluding bonuses, and is not the same as total household income.

Insurance CPI vs Wage Price Index, 2016 to 2026

Annual change in the March quarter, year on year

Official ABS data

Insurance (CPI)
Wage Price Index

Wage Price Index is total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses, seasonally adjusted, all sectors. Both series are published quarterly by the ABS on a consistent, comparable basis.

Source: ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia (Table 18); ABS Wage Price Index, Australia.

Between March 2016 and March 2026, the ABS Insurance CPI increased by approximately 73%, while the Wage Price Index increased by approximately 30%. On this measure, insurance prices rose at more than twice the pace of wages over the decade.

This does not show how much households spent on insurance in 2026, or how insurance costs changed for every household. It does show that the official price index for insurance increased much faster than the official wage index over the same period.

Section 052026 estimate

How much is household insurance estimated to cost in Australia in 2026?

Selected household insurance costs are estimated at about $81 a week in 2026, based on official price and premium movements since the last ABS household spending benchmark.

This is a partial modelled estimate, not an official 2026 household spending figure. It includes house and contents insurance, plus the ABS accident and health insurance category. It excludes motor insurance, life insurance, travel insurance, pet insurance, landlord insurance and income protection insurance.

The estimate is included to show how selected insurance costs may have changed when later official data is applied to the older ABS benchmark. It should not be read as an average premium paid by policyholders.

Modelled estimate

≈ $29 a week

House and contents insurance: the 2015–16 ABS figure of $16.74 increased using the ABS Insurance CPI from March 2016 to March 2026. Proxy: the CPI series also includes motor vehicle insurance.

Modelled estimate

≈ $52 a week

Accident and health insurance: the $33.42 sub-line increased by ≈40% (compounded premium rounds, 1 April 2017 to 1 April 2026), with the remaining $5.14 held unchanged.

No 2026 estimate supplied

Life insurance

No official price series is used to update the 2015–16 ABS figure.

How these estimates were calculated

Each insurance category is modelled separately because the available official data does not measure all types of insurance in the same way. The estimates use the closest available official series for each category, but they are still modelled figures, not official 2026 household spending statistics.

House and contents insurance: The 2015–16 ABS figure is increased using the ABS Insurance CPI from March 2016 to March 2026. This is a proxy because the ABS Insurance CPI covers house, contents and motor vehicle insurance together, rather than house and contents insurance alone.
Accident and health insurance: The $33.42 hospital, medical and dental insurance sub-line is increased by approximately 40%, using compounded Australian Government approved industry-average private health insurance premium changes for the ten premium rounds from 1 April 2017 to 1 April 2026. 2017 is used as the starting point, rather than 2016, because the 2015–16 ABS survey period runs to 30 June 2016 and so already partly reflects the 1 April 2016 premium round. The remaining $5.14 in the ABS accident and health insurance category is held unchanged because no matching official price series is used for that residual amount.
Life insurance: No 2026 estimate is supplied. Life insurance is not tracked by the ABS CPI, and this article does not use a proxy to update the 2015–16 ABS figure.
Motor insurance: No separate 2026 estimate is supplied. The ABS vehicle registration and insurance line combines registration and insurance costs, while the ABS Insurance CPI combines motor vehicle insurance with house and contents insurance. Using either series as a stand-alone motor insurance estimate would overstate the precision of the calculation.
Cover levels: Changes in the amount of cover households buy, such as higher sums insured for homes, contents or rebuilding costs, are not captured. The estimates apply price and premium movements to the older ABS spending benchmark; they do not use private-sector quote data or premium survey data.

Section 06Long-term trend

How have insurance prices changed in Australia since 2000?

The longer ABS Insurance CPI series shows that insurance price growth has not followed a steady path. Since 2000, the sharpest increases have come in bursts, including 2000–01, 2009 and the recent 2023–24 surge.

Annual change in the ABS Insurance CPI, 2000 to 2026

Percentage change in the March quarter, year on year

Official ABS data

Source: ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia, Table 18, Insurance, weighted average of eight capital cities, March quarter data to March 2026.

The largest March-quarter annual increases in this period were 19.7% in 2000, 18.1% in 2001 and 16.4% in 2024. The 2024 increase was the fastest March-quarter annual rise in the ABS Insurance CPI since 2001.

Measured by index levels, the Insurance CPI rose from 26.45 in March 2000 to 103.32 in March 2026. That means the price level tracked by this index was about 3.9 times higher than it was in March 2000.

The recent increase is also visible in the index level. Between March 2024 and March 2026, the Insurance CPI rose from 91.99 to 103.32. That two-year increase accounted for about 15% of the total index-point rise between March 2000 and March 2026.

Section 07Affordability

What does the data show about insurance affordability pressure?

Official data shows insurance prices have risen faster than wages, householders insurance remains under financial pressure despite rising premiums, and the cyclone reinsurance pool has reduced premiums only for some higher-risk policyholders. There is no single official affordability index covering every type of insurance — these are separate indicators rather than one combined measure.

Cyclone reinsurance pool reduced premiums in higher-risk areas

The ACCC's fifth and final insurance monitoring report, published in June 2026, found that the cyclone reinsurance pool moderated premium increases for some consumers in medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas. These areas account for around 2% of policies nationally. For home insurance policies in medium-to-high cyclone-risk areas, average premiums per $100,000 sum insured were 11% lower in the first year after insurers joined the pool, compared with the pre-pool period. For policies observed up to two years after insurers joined the pool, average premiums were 14% lower. The ACCC also found that premiums in nil-to-low cyclone-risk areas rose by 6% over the same period. This means the pool reduced premiums for some higher-risk policyholders, but it did not remove broader insurance affordability pressure.

Householders insurance premiums and results remain under pressure

APRA's general insurance statistics show that gross written premium for the householders insurance class rose from $3.82 billion in the December 2023 quarter to $4.49 billion in the December 2025 quarter. That is an increase of about 17.4% over two years. The same APRA series shows a negative $10 million insurance service result for the householders class in the March 2026 quarter. This should be described as an insurance service result, not as total insurer profit or total insurer loss.

APRA

-$10 million

Insurance service result for the householders insurance class, March 2026 quarter

Australian Government

4.41%

Approved industry-average private health insurance premium increase from 1 April 2026

APRA

$511.02

Average out-of-pocket payment per hospital episode, March 2026 quarter

APRA

$65.02

Average out-of-pocket payment per general treatment ancillary service, March 2026 quarter

Private health insurance costs also increased in 2026

The Australian Government approved an industry-average private health insurance premium increase of 4.41% from 1 April 2026. This was the largest approved average increase since 2017.

APRA's March 2026 private health insurance data also shows higher out-of-pocket costs. The average out-of-pocket payment for a hospital episode was $511.02 in the March 2026 quarter, up 8.9% from a year earlier. The average out-of-pocket payment for a general treatment ancillary service was $65.02, up 5.5% from a year earlier.

General information only

This article is a statistical reference based on publicly available ABS, APRA, ACCC and Australian Government data. It is intended to explain insurance price trends, premium movements and official household spending benchmarks in Australia. Any 2026 dollar estimate in this article is a modelled estimate or proxy calculation, not an official ABS household spending figure and not an average premium paid by policyholders. Actual insurance costs vary by insurer, location, property type, risk profile, cover level, excess, household circumstances and policy terms. This article does not provide financial advice, insurance advice or personal recommendations. Readers should check current policy documents, insurer pricing and official government or regulator sources before relying on any figure for a specific household or policy decision.