Home Insurance Statistics in Canada (2026): Premiums
Home premiums are up 45% since 2019 against a record $8.5B in catastrophe losses, and water damage is now 40%+ of claims. All sourced.
Key takeaways
- Home insurance premiums rose about 45% between December 2019 and 2025 — more than double general inflation over the same period (Statistics Canada; InsuranceXpert analysis).
- 2024 was the costliest year on record for insured severe-weather losses at $8.5 billion — roughly 6.5× the 2019 total and nearly three times the previous year (IBC/CatIQ; InsuranceXpert analysis).
- Water damage is now the single biggest home claim — around 40%+ of claims, averaging about $23,550 each, or roughly 17× a typical annual premium (IBC; InsuranceXpert analysis).
- There is no official national average premium: broker surveys put it near $1,340 a year, but a standardized Ontario profile averaged about $2,235 (Rates.ca) — the figure depends entirely on the home, location and coverage.
Home insurance premiums rose about 45% between 2019 and 2025, more than double general inflation — but the number that explains it is the claim, not the premium. The average water-damage claim runs about $23,550, roughly 17 times a typical annual premium (InsuranceXpert analysis), and water is now 40%+ of all home claims. One flooded basement costs an insurer what one household pays in nearly two decades. That arithmetic, plus a record $8.5 billion in 2024 catastrophe losses, is the whole story of why home insurance is repricing. Sources: IBC/CatIQ and Statistics Canada.
How much is home insurance in Canada?
There is no single official national average, but broker surveys put the typical home insurance premium at roughly $1,340 a year in early 2026 — with wide variation by province, home value and risk. Unlike car insurance, home insurance premiums aren’t published by a national regulator, so every “average” you see is a private estimate built from a specific set of quotes.
That matters, because the figure moves dramatically with the profile used. A standardized Ontario homeowner profile averaged about $2,235 in 2026 broker data (Rates.ca), well above the national estimate — because Ontario combines high home values, dense urban risk and rising water claims. At the other end, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick consistently rank among the cheapest markets.
Home insurance is also effectively universal among owners: almost every mortgage lender requires it, so in practice nearly all of Canada’s roughly 10 million homeowner households carry a policy. Renters are a different story — only about half carry tenant insurance, despite it being among the cheapest coverage available.
Why is home insurance getting more expensive?
Home insurance premiums rose about 45% between December 2019 and 2025 — more than double general inflation over the same period (Statistics Canada; InsuranceXpert analysis). Over the most recent five years the increase was roughly 38.6%. General consumer prices rose closer to 20% across that window, so home insurance has been outpacing the cost of living by a factor of more than two.
The reason is on the claims side, not the pricing side. Insurers pay out when disasters strike, and disasters have been striking harder and more often:
- 2024 insured catastrophe losses hit $8.5 billion — the costliest year in Canadian history, driven by the Jasper wildfire, Calgary hailstorms, Toronto flash floods and Quebec’s remnants of Hurricane Debby.
- That’s roughly 6.5× the 2019 total of $1.3 billion, and nearly three times the prior year’s $3.1 billion (InsuranceXpert analysis).
- Severe-weather losses now routinely exceed $2 billion a year, versus an average of about $400–500 million annually before 2010 — a structural shift, not a one-off spike.
When insurers pay out more, reinsurance costs rise, and those costs flow through to homeowner premiums the following year. That is the mechanism behind the 45% increase.
Insured catastrophe losses are climbing fast
The chart above tells the story of the decade in one line: a background level of $1–3 billion a year, then a step-change to $8.5 billion in 2024. The 2024 figure alone is larger than the combined insured losses of 2019 and 2020.
| Year | Insured catastrophe losses (CAD) | Change vs prior year |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $1.3 billion | — |
| 2020 | $2.4 billion | +85% |
| 2021 | $2.1 billion | −13% |
| 2022 | $3.4 billion | +62% |
| 2023 | $3.1 billion | −9% |
| 2024 | $8.5 billion | +174% |
Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada / CatIQ. Year-over-year percentages are (InsuranceXpert analysis). Figures are insured losses only; total economic losses are several times higher.
Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada / CatIQ (annual insured catastrophe losses)
What are the most common home insurance claims?
Water damage is the single biggest home insurance claim in Canada — around 40%+ of all claims — and it averages about $23,550 each (Insurance Bureau of Canada). That’s roughly 17 times a typical annual premium (InsuranceXpert analysis), which is why a single water claim can reshape your renewal price.
Water has overtaken fire as the dominant peril over the past two decades, driven by more intense rainfall, aging municipal sewers and finished basements full of expensive contents. Fire remains the most severe per-claim event, but it’s far less frequent than water.
| Cause of claim | Approx. share of home claims | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Water damage | ~42% | Burst pipes, sewer backup, overland flood; avg ~$23,550 |
| Fire | ~24% | Less frequent but highest severity per claim |
| Wind & storm | ~16% | Hail and windstorm, rising with severe weather |
| Theft | ~10% | Break-ins and property theft |
| Liability & other | ~8% | Injury claims, other perils |
Shares are approximate and vary by insurer and year (Insurance Bureau of Canada).
The practical takeaway for buyers: the water-damage and sewer-backup sections of a policy are where real protection lives. Two policies with the same premium can differ by tens of thousands of dollars in what they’ll actually pay after a flooded basement.
Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada (water is the leading cause of home claims)
Does home insurance cover flooding?
Standard home insurance does not cover overland flooding by default — it’s an optional add-on, and homes in the highest-risk zones often can’t buy it at all. A base policy covers sudden internal water escape (a burst pipe), but water entering from outside — a swollen river, heavy rain, or a backed-up sewer — requires specific endorsements.
Overland-flood coverage is a relatively new product in Canada. It was first introduced in 2015, and it’s now available to about 90% of households for roughly $180–$420 a year. The remaining ~10% — an estimated 1.5 million households in high-risk flood plains — are effectively uninsurable on the private market.
That gap is what the federal National Flood Insurance Program is meant to close. It was targeted to launch in spring 2025 but has been delayed, leaving the highest-risk homeowners without an affordable option. Flood is Canada’s costliest and fastest-growing natural hazard, so the coverage gap is a live policy issue, not a technicality.
How does home insurance compare to car insurance?
Home and car insurance have risen in parallel, but for different reasons. Car premiums have been driven up by auto theft and repair costs; home premiums by catastrophe losses and water damage. Over the five years to 2025, home insurance premiums rose about 38.6% while car insurance rose a comparable amount — both far ahead of the roughly 20% rise in general prices (Statistics Canada; InsuranceXpert analysis).
The key structural difference is regulation. Car insurance is regulated province by province, with public insurers in BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and published average premiums. Home insurance is fully private in every province and largely unregulated on price — which is why there’s no official average and why shopping between insurers matters even more.
| Home insurance | Car insurance | |
|---|---|---|
| Sold by | Private insurers, all provinces | Private + public (BC/MB/SK) |
| National average published? | No | Yes (StatCan / regulators) |
| Biggest cost driver | Catastrophe & water claims | Auto theft & repair costs |
| 5-year premium change (to 2025) | ~38.6% | Comparable |
| Overland flood / theft coverage | Optional add-on | Comprehensive covers theft |
Who owns homes in Canada?
About 66.5% of Canadian households own their home, representing roughly 10 million owner households (Statistics Canada, 2021 Census). The ownership rate has edged down from a 2011 peak near 69% as affordability has tightened, but two-thirds of households still own — and nearly all of them carry insurance because lenders require it.
Home values sit behind the rebuilding-cost pressure on premiums: as construction and material costs rise, the cost to rebuild a home after a total loss rises too, and guaranteed-replacement-cost policies must be priced for that. This is why premiums can climb even for a homeowner who has never made a claim.
| Housing metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Homeownership rate | 66.5% | StatCan, 2021 Census |
| Owner households | ~10.0 million | StatCan, 2021 Census |
| Total households | ~15.0 million | StatCan, 2021 Census |
| Renters with tenant insurance | ~50% | Industry estimate |
What is the outlook for home insurance premiums?
Most brokers and analysts expect home insurance premiums to rise another 7–12% in 2026, on top of the 45% increase since 2019. Three forces are behind the forecast: record 2024 catastrophe losses flowing through to reinsurance costs, continued construction-cost inflation, and insurers actively repricing flood and wildfire risk.
The increases won’t be evenly spread. Homeowners in wildfire-exposed parts of BC and Alberta, and flood-exposed parts of Ontario and Quebec, are likely to see the steepest jumps — and in the highest-risk pockets, some insurers are declining to renew at all. Homeowners who invest in prevention (leak detectors, sump-pump backups, fire-resistant materials) increasingly earn discounts, which is becoming a meaningful lever as base rates climb.
| Outlook factor | 2026 direction |
|---|---|
| Catastrophe losses | Rising — 2024 set a record |
| Reinsurance costs | Rising, flowing to premiums |
| Construction / rebuild costs | Rising |
| Flood & wildfire repricing | Steepest in high-risk zones |
| Expected premium change | +7% to +12% |
Methodology: why do the sources disagree?
Home insurance statistics are messier than car statistics, and it’s worth understanding why the numbers you’ll see quoted don’t always match.
There is no official national average premium. Car insurance has published average premiums from provincial regulators; home insurance does not. Every “average home premium in Canada” figure — including the ~$1,340 we cite — is a private estimate built from a particular sample of quotes for a particular home profile. That’s why you’ll see figures ranging from ~$1,000 to over $2,200 depending on whether the source used a national blend or a standardized Ontario profile. We label these as estimates rather than official statistics.
Catastrophe-loss figures get revised. The $8.5 billion headline for 2024 is the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s figure; some updated tallies from CatIQ put it closer to $8.9 billion, and broader estimates including uninsured losses run higher still. These differ because they’re measured at different points in the claims cycle and with different definitions of “insured” versus “economic” loss. We use the widely-cited IBC/CatIQ insured-loss figure and flag that total economic losses are several times larger.
Claim-share percentages are approximate. The “water is ~40%+ of claims” figure is well-established, but exact peril shares vary by insurer, region and year, and different insurers categorize sewer backup, overland flood and pipe bursts differently. We present rounded shares to show the ranking, not to imply decimal precision.
Premium-index growth is a price index, not a dollar amount. Statistics Canada’s ~45% increase measures the change in the price of home insurance, holding coverage constant — it does not mean every homeowner’s bill rose exactly 45%, because coverage levels and home values also changed over the period.
Understanding these distinctions is what separates a defensible statistic from a misleading one — and it’s why we source and label every figure on this page rather than pick a single number and present it as settled fact.
Frequently asked questions
How much is home insurance in Canada per year?
There is no official national average, but broker surveys put it around $1,340 a year in early 2026. It's cheapest in Quebec, PEI and New Brunswick and highest in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta. A standardized Ontario homeowner profile averaged about $2,235 (Rates.ca, 2026). Your actual premium depends on the home's value and construction, location and flood/fire risk, coverage level, deductible and claims history — so quotes for the same home can vary by hundreds of dollars between insurers.
Why is home insurance getting more expensive in Canada?
Climate-driven claims are the main reason. 2024 was Canada's costliest year on record for insured severe-weather losses at $8.5 billion — nearly triple 2023 — and severe-weather losses now routinely top $2 billion a year versus about $400–500 million annually before 2010. Water damage is the biggest home claim at roughly $23,550 on average, and rebuilding costs have surged with construction inflation. Statistics Canada's price index shows home insurance premiums rose about 45% between 2019 and 2025.
Does home insurance cover flooding in Canada?
Not by default. A standard policy covers sudden, accidental internal water damage — like a burst pipe — but overland flooding (water entering from a river, lake or heavy rain) and sewer backup are optional add-ons. Overland-flood coverage was first introduced in Canada in 2015 and is now available to about 90% of households for roughly $180–$420 a year. However, homes in the highest-risk flood zones — an estimated 1.5 million households — remain largely uninsurable, which is what Canada's delayed National Flood Insurance Program is meant to address.
What is the most common home insurance claim in Canada?
Water damage. It accounts for roughly 40%+ of all home insurance claims and averages about $23,550 per claim (Insurance Bureau of Canada) — far ahead of fire and theft. The rise is driven by more frequent extreme-rain events, aging infrastructure and sewer backups. That's why a policy's water-damage and sewer-backup coverage matters more than the headline premium, and why insurers increasingly reward leak-detection devices with discounts.
How much has home insurance gone up in Canada?
Using Statistics Canada's price index, home and mortgage insurance premiums rose about 45% between December 2019 and 2025 — roughly 38.6% over the most recent five years. That's more than double general inflation over the same window, and it reflects record catastrophe losses, higher rebuilding costs and more frequent water claims (Statistics Canada; InsuranceXpert analysis).
Is home insurance mandatory in Canada?
No law requires home insurance, but almost every mortgage lender requires it as a condition of the loan, so in practice most of Canada's roughly 10 million homeowner households carry it. Renters aren't required to have tenant insurance either, though many landlords now make it a condition of the lease. Only about half of Canadian renters carry tenant insurance, leaving a large share of households exposed to theft, fire and liability losses.
How much will home insurance cost in 2026?
Most brokers and analysts expect home insurance premiums to rise a further 7–12% in 2026, on top of the 45% increase since 2019. The pressure comes from record 2024 catastrophe losses flowing through to reinsurance costs, continued construction-cost inflation, and insurers repricing flood and wildfire risk. Homeowners in wildfire- and flood-exposed regions of BC, Alberta and Ontario are likely to see the steepest increases (broker estimates; InsuranceXpert analysis).
Sources
- Insurance Bureau of Canada — 2024 severe weather & catastrophe losses
- Statistics Canada — Consumer Price Index (homeowners' insurance, Table 18-10-0004-01)
- Insurance Bureau of Canada — water damage & flood risk
- Statistics Canada — 2021 Census, homeownership & housing
- Government of Canada — National Flood Insurance Program