Published
- Official ABS index data
- +73% vs +30%
- Growth in the ABS Insurance CPI compared with the WPI, March 2016 to March 2026
- Official Australian Government data
- +4.41%
- Approved industry-average private health insurance premium from 1 April 2026
- Official ABS data
- 5.5%
- Annual rise in ABS Insurance expenditure class in the twelve months to May 2026
- Official ABS benchmark
- 2015–16
- Latest ABS HES 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.
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Australian Home Insurance Statistics 2026The December 2025 quarter was the heaviest period for home insurance claims. Insurers incurred $5.45 billion in gross claims against $4.33 billion in gross accrued premium, meaning claims cost more th…Section 01 · Insurance 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 02 · 2015–16 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 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 | |
|---|---|
| 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.
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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
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.
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 03 · Since 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.
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 04 · Insurance 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.
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 05 · 2026 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.
Section 06 · Long-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.
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 07 · Affordability
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.
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.
References
- ASIC Moneysmart: Insurance · moneysmart.gov.au
- ASIC Moneysmart: Choosing car insurance · moneysmart.gov.au
- PrivateHealth.gov.au: What is covered by private health insurance? · privatehealth.gov.au
- Smartraveller: Travel insurance · smartraveller.gov.au
- APRA: Our functions · apra.gov.au
- ABS Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2015–16 · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ABS: Corporate Plan 2025–26, Forward Work Program · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ABS, Consumer Price Index, Australia, March 2026 · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ABS – Consumer Price Index, Australia, May 2026 · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ABS: Consumer Price Index: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2025 · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ABS Wage Price Index, Australia · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: 2026 private health insurance premiums · health.gov.au
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: Average annual price changes in private health insurance premiums · health.gov.au
- APRA: Quarterly private health insurance membership and benefits summary, March 2026 · apra.gov.au
- APRA, Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statistics, March 2026 edition · apra.gov.au
- ACCC, Insurance monitoring report 2026 – Supplementary data · accc.gov.au