Source: LATIN AMERICA INSURANCE RANKINGS DATA HUB
Market Size and Recent Performance
The Costa Rican insurance market, including life and non-life segments, reached a total premium volume of USD 2,463 million at the close of December 2025. This represents a nominal year-on-year growth of 3.3% compared with December 2024, when premiums amounted to USD 2,385 million. The figures confirm a moderate but steady expansion of the market in dollar terms, aligned with the country’s overall economic dynamics and insurance penetration trends.
Measured in local currency, total premiums reached CRC 1,226,414 million in December 2025, up from CRC 1,180,653 million in December 2024. In colones, the nominal annual growth rate stood at 3.9%, slightly higher than the growth observed in U.S. dollars, reflecting exchange rate effects over the period. This local-currency performance highlights the underlying resilience of insurance demand in Costa Rica.
Market Structure and Competitive Landscape
As of December 2025, a total of 12 insurance companies were actively competing in the Costa Rican market. These insurers represent approximately 1.5% of the total number of insurance companies operating across Latin America, positioning Costa Rica as a relatively small but well-defined market within the regional insurance landscape.
Despite the limited number of players, the market shows a high level of concentration. The ten leading insurers together account for 97.6% of total premiums, leaving a marginal share for smaller participants. This structure underlines the dominance of established players and the significant barriers to gaining meaningful scale in the Costa Rican insurance sector.
Leading Insurers and Market Shares
The market is overwhelmingly led by INS, which holds a commanding market share of 62.4%, consolidating its position as the dominant insurer in Costa Rica across life and non-life segments. This leadership shapes pricing, product development, and competitive dynamics throughout the market.
A second tier of competitors follows at a considerable distance. PAN AMERICAN LIFE ranks second with an 8.9% market share, closely followed by ASSA with 8.1%. These two insurers represent the main private-sector challengers to the market leader, although the gap remains substantial.
Mid-sized players include ISCR with a 3.6% market share and MAPFRE with 3.4%, both maintaining a relevant presence but without sufficient scale to materially challenge the top positions. QUALITAS holds 2.8% of the market, while SAGICOR accounts for 2.4%, reinforcing the fragmentation within the mid-market segment.
The ranking is completed by BEST MERIDIAN, MAGISTERIO, and MNK (ex OCEANICA), each with a market share of 2.0%. While individually modest, these insurers collectively contribute to the high concentration level observed among the top ten players.
Outlook and Competitive Implications
The combination of moderate premium growth, a limited number of competitors, and a highly concentrated market suggests a stable but challenging environment for expansion in Costa Rica. Growth opportunities are likely to depend more on product innovation, efficiency gains, and targeted niche strategies than on rapid market expansion. At the same time, the dominant position of INS continues to be the defining feature of the Costa Rican insurance market as of December 2025.