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Business insurance cost data: what is official and what is not

Government and statistical agencies publish cost data for two business lines: workers' compensation (NASI: $0.98 per $100 of covered wages nationally in 2023; BLS: $0.43 per hour worked in June 2026) and employer health insurance (AHRQ: $9,025 average single-coverage premium in 2025). For general liability, property, cyber, professional liability and commercial auto, no agency publishes what a business pays; the only per-policy figures are insurer-reported medians and averages.

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Contents8 sections

Key takeaways

  • Official cost data exists for workers' comp (NASI, Oregon DCBS, BLS) and group health (AHRQ). Nothing comparable exists for liability, property, cyber or commercial auto premiums⁠1⁠3⁠4.
  • NAIC reports 2025 premiums written by line, which measures the size of a market, not the price any one business pays⁠5.
  • CIAB reports how renewal prices moved, in percent, not what a policy costs⁠6.
  • Insurer-reported figures describe that insurer's own customers; they are not national averages⁠7.

Quick facts

Workers' comp cost, 2023$0.98 per $100 of covered wages, NASI⁠1
Workers' comp cost, June 2026$0.43 per hour worked, BLS⁠3
Health premium, 2025$9,025 single, $26,281 family, AHRQ private sector⁠4
Largest unmapped gapPer-policy prices for general liability, property, cyber, professional and auto

Where official cost data exists

Two lines have published cost data from government or statistical bodies.

Workers’ compensation. The National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) divides employer costs by the wages of covered workers. Its 2023 figure is $0.98 per $100 of covered wages nationally, down from $1.17 in 2019; Hawaii’s 2023 figure was $1.62 and the District of Columbia’s $0.33⁠1. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services ranks states on a standard set of classes: its 2024 study put Hawaii highest at an index of $2.52 per $100 of payroll against a median of $1.09⁠2. The BLS measures cost per hour, by industry rather than by state: private employers averaged $0.43 per hour worked in June 2026, 0.9% of compensation⁠3. These three do not agree on a level, because they measure different things: actual cost across all employers (NASI), a fixed class mix priced at filed rates (Oregon), and hours (BLS).

Employer health insurance. AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component reports the average premium private-sector employers paid in 2025: $9,025 for single coverage and $26,281 for family coverage, with a table for each state⁠4.

What does not exist

No agency publishes a typical premium for general liability, a business owner’s policy, professional liability, cyber or commercial property. State insurance departments hold rate filings, but those are filed by carrier and class, not summarized as a price a business pays. The one exception is workers’ comp, where state funds and rating bureaus publish loss costs and rates by class code. We publish complete schedules only for the state funds that publish their own schedules (Ohio, Washington and Wyoming); bureau class tables carry terms that forbid reproducing them.

Two official-looking sources are easy to misread. NAIC’s 2025 market share reports give direct premiums written by line, $1,116.1 billion across all lines⁠5. That is market size. Dividing it by a count of businesses would produce a number nobody paid. CIAB’s Q2 2026 index measures how premiums changed at renewal, not what they are⁠6.

How we label figures

Every number on this site is one of four types:

  1. Official statistic

    , such as NASI, BLS, AHRQ or NAIC, with publisher and period.

  2. Regulator-approved rate or rate decision

    , with its effective date.

  3. Insurer- or broker-reported figure

    , with the company, median or average, monthly or annual, whose customers, and the page date. Insureon, for example, reports a general liability median of $45 a month among its customers (page dated 30 March 2026)⁠7. That describes one broker’s customers, not businesses nationally.

  4. Our calculation

    , with inputs shown.

Where a line has only type 3 figures, we show several side by side and say why they differ.

Price direction by line

The snapshot below shows renewal price changes by line, with each series’ publisher and period. It tells you whether quotes are rising or falling, not their level.

Average premium change at renewal, Q2 2026
CoverageAll businesses (CIAB)Small commercial (Ivans)
Commercial auto+4.5%+4.93%
General liability+1.8%+5.44%
Commercial property−6.3%+6.40%
Umbrella+5.3%+7.96%
Workers’ compensation−3.2%−1.37%
Business owner’s policy–+6.16%

CIAB: average premium change at renewal reported by member brokers, Q2 2026 (April 1-June 30, 2026), released 18 Aug 2026. Ivans: average renewal premium change on small commercial policies, Q2 2026. Premium changes include changes in exposure as well as rates. All series and method.

The data pages

The pages listed below carry the full tables: workers’ comp cost by state and by industry, employer health premiums by state, and the market trend series. For how a premium is built from exposure, class and experience, see how premiums are calculated; for per-coverage insurer figures, see coverage costs.

All data pages

Sources

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  7. 7

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