Hong Kong and Singapore Life Insurance Market Data Side by Side: New Business, Linked Business Share and Mainland Visitor Statistics

Hong Kong and Singapore do not measure life insurance the same way. The Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA) publishes "new office premiums" in Hong Kong dollars; the Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA Singapore) publishes "weighted new business premiums" in Singapore dollars, with single premiums counted at 10% only. This page sets the two places' verifiable official figures since 2025 side by side, labels each with its period, currency, institution and date, and explains what the figures can and cannot show. They are for understanding the market environment, not for deciding which side to choose.

Start with the basis: what the two sets of statistics measure

Before comparing figures, align the basis; otherwise the same word "growth" refers to different things.

The LIA's weighting means that products sold mainly as single premiums are understated in the Singapore statistics, and their actual premium volume is higher than the weighted figure. Hong Kong's new office premiums carry no equivalent note, so the two sets of figures can only be read on their own terms.

Hong Kong: first half of 2025, full year 2025 and first quarter of 2026

The IA website must be opened manually. The figures below come from IA press release extracts, cross-checked against the industry press, Insurance Business Asia (2026-07-25) and Asia Insurance Review (2026-07-24); individual components (linked, participating) follow the IA press releases.

Calculated from the published figures (this site's calculation, rounded), linked individual business was about 4.0% of long term business new office premiums in the first half of 2025, 5.6% for the full year 2025 and 4.0% in the first quarter of 2026; participating business was about 86.3%, 85.5% and 89.1%. Growth rates should be read against the base: linked business is small in absolute terms, and a high growth rate does not mean a large share. Whether the IA's "linked individual business" is broken down into indexed universal life or investment-linked assurance schemes follows the IA statistical tables; this site does not estimate the size of any single product from it. The IA published the previous year's half-year provisional statistics on 2025-10-24; the first-half 2026 figures had not been released as at 2026-10-22, and the IA page prevails once they are.

Mainland visitors: the 2024 figure and the statistical gap from 2025

The IA reported that new office premiums from Mainland visitors were HK$62.8 billion in 2024, up 6.5% year on year and 28.6% of individual new business premiums (IA, 2025-04-25). The same press release states that whole life, critical illness and medical policies accounted for about 59%, 28% and 5% of Mainland visitor new business respectively (IA, 2025-04-25; the IA website must be opened manually, and the Asia Insurance Review report of 2025-05-09 serves as a cross-check).

Since the first quarter of 2025 the IA has stated in each quarterly press release that it is reviewing the scope and criteria for collecting data on non-local policyholders and will not publish Mainland visitor statistics separately until the review is complete; as at the first quarter 2026 statistics this had run for five consecutive periods (IA; Insurance Business Asia, 2026-07-25). There is therefore no verifiable official Mainland visitor figure for 2025 or later. The gap can be read neither as a fall in business nor as a rise. The rules and risk warnings for Mainland visitors are in Mainland residents applying for Hong Kong and Singapore VUL / universal life.

Singapore: full year 2025 and first half of 2026

The LIA published full-year 2025 industry results on 2026-02-11 and first-half 2026 results on 2026-08-12. The figures are below (weighted basis, S$ million).

The LIA press releases also note that regular-premium investment-linked policies have been popular with consumers. This is a reminder that the 44% share, which covers a very broad category of investment-linked products, is not the size of high-net-worth VUL; the LIA press releases do not show VUL separately. Hong Kong's 5.6% and Singapore's 44% have different denominators and different weightings and cannot be ranked side by side.

High-net-worth environment data: assets under management, single family offices and large policies

The following three items are public figures on Singapore's high-net-worth environment. They describe the background only and are not used to indicate the size of any policy product.

The assets under management figure covers the whole industry and is not the assets of single family offices; the Manulife announcement does not state which product type these policies belong to, so no demand for VUL can be inferred from it.

What these figures mean, and what they do not

Official data usually lags: Hong Kong's first quarter 2026 figures were published on 2026-07-24, nearly four months after the quarter ended; the LIA's full-year figures appear about six weeks after year end, and its half-year figures about six weeks after the half-year end. Market data is also revised; for example, the LIA noted in its first-half 2026 press release that the first quarter figures had been revised. When citing these figures, use each institution's latest page. To have this applied to your own circumstances, you may register your needs through the contact options on this site.