Insurance in Canada: What’s driving premiums higher?

Release date: June 16, 2026
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Canadians have seen their insurance premiums go up in the last six years. There are a number of reasons for this, including a significant rise in extreme weather claims, higher replacement and repair costs, and auto thefts.

Catastrophic claims

2024 was the costliest year on record for extreme weather claims, and each year from 2020 to 2025 ranked among the top 10 costliest

Cost of catastrophic event claims Note 1
Year Billions of dollars
2020 2.5
2021 2.6
2022 3.6
2023 3.4
2024 8.6
2025 2.4

Homeowners’ insurance

The expenses incurred by insurers for homeowners’ insurance reached an all-time high in 2024, amid the spike in catastrophic event claims Table summary
The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), , calculated using (appearing as column headers).
Year Billions of dollars
2020 6.0
2021 6.2
2022 7.1
2023 10.2
2024 13.2
2025 11.7

Higher construction costs, tariffs and labour shortages contributed to the increase

  • +19.1%: Homeowners’ maintenance and repair costs (December 2019 to December 2025)
  • +69.4%: Residential Building Construction Price IndexNote 2 (fourth quarter 2019 to fourth quarter 2025)

Auto insurance

Insurers’ expenses for auto insurance claims were lower during the pandemic, then jumped in 2023 Note 3
Year Billions of dollars
2020 13.3
2021 12.0
2022 12.4
2023 19.3
2024 23.0
2025 22.1

Higher vehicle prices and an increase in auto thefts contributed to the growth

  • +22.6%: Auto part, maintenance and repair costs (December 2019 to December 2025)

Impact on consumers

From December 2019 to December 2025, home and auto insurance premiums rose faster than the all-items Consumer Price Index

  • +21.0%: All-items Consumer Price Index
  • +45.0%: Homeowners’ home and mortgage insurance premiums
  • +23.9%: Passenger vehicle insurance premiums

Impact on insurers

For many insurers, the third quarter of 2024 was the worst on record, as their total expenses rose $3.8 billion from a year earlier. This increase is largely due to extreme weather events.

Revenue and expenses of property and casualty insurers, first quarter of 2023 to fourth quarter of 2025 Table summary
This table displays the results of Revenue and expenses of property and casualty insurers, first quarter of 2023 to fourth quarter of 2025 Q1 2023, Q2 2023, Q3 2023, Q4 2023, Q1 2024, Q2 2024, Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025 and Q4 2025, calculated using billions of dollars units of measure (appearing as column headers).
  Q1 2023 Q2 2023 Q3 2023 Q4 2023 Q1 2024 Q2 2024 Q3 2024 Q4 2024 Q1 2025 Q2 2025 Q3 2025 Q4 2025
billions of dollars
Total insurance revenue 17.5 18.6 19.5 20.3 19.8 20.8 21.6 22.0 20.8 21.6 22.3 22.8
Total insurance claims and expenses 16.0 16.4 17.6 16.7 17.1 17.2 21.4 18.5 18.7 18.3 19.1 18.8

Sources: McGillivray, M., 2024, “Insights into the impact of extreme weather trends in Canada on homeowners insurance profitability and consumers, January 2020 to December 2024,” Analysis in Brief, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-621-M, 2025, “Impacts of rising costs and claims on personal automobile insurance profitability and consumers in Canada,” Analysis in Brief, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-621-M, and 2026, ”Extreme weather impacts on consumers and insurers in Canada, December 2019 to December 2025: An updated analysis,” Analysis in Brief, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-621-M.

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Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Industry, 2026

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Catalogue no. 11-627-M

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