The size of assets held by Swedish insurance and occupational pension companies relative to the size of the economy, i.e., the country's GDP, is among the highest in Europe.
This is a commonly used measure of the significance of the insurance industry within a country. Even in terms of the size of assets in SEK billions, Swedish companies rank among the highest in Europe. The largest assets are held by French and German companies, reflecting the fact that these countries have the largest economies in Europe. Among European occupational pension companies, the Swedish occupational pension compa-nies had the second largest assets relative to GDP in 2023, following the Dutch companies, while Swedish insurance companies had the sixth largest assets relative to GDP among insurance companies.
The reason why companies in Luxembourg have assets nearly four times (400 per cent) larger than their GDP is that many companies, primarily tar-geting policyholders outside Luxembourg, have chosen to establish them-selves there. This may be due to Luxembourg's large financial sector and possible tax-related reasons.
The significant assets held by Dutch occupational pension companies rela-tive to GDP can largely be explained by the design of the pension system in the Netherlands, where occupational pensions account for a larger share of pension payments compared to, for example, Sweden.
