North Carolina: From the Wright Brothers to Krispy Kremes
The United States Census Bureau’s Census 2000 estimated the population of the State of North Carolina at 8,049,313. Approximately 78 percent of the adult residents had graduated from high school and about 23 percent had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. The capital, Raleigh, has a population of 276,093.
From an employment perspective, the primary industries in North Carolina are:
From a property/casualty insurance perspective, North Carolina accounted for $10,387,321,000 of direct written premium.
Countrywide, the 2003 aggregate was $445,028,265,000 of P/C insurance written. North Carolina’s calendar year 2003 loss and loss adjustment expense ratio of 64.4 percent approximated the calendar year 2003 countrywide loss and loss adjustment expense ratio of 67.6 percent. It was interesting to note that North Carolina’s homeowners’ loss ratio for calendar year 2003 was 67.2 percent despite a series of ice storms that struck the central area of the state. The country-wide figure for 2003 was 61.2 percent.
What surprised me the most was that North Carolina farmowners insurance premium for calendar year 2003 was $36,499,000. I expected it to be more. However, in a state with 29,178 farming,
fishing and forestry employees, perhaps that is about right.
The employed civilian population comprises nearly 48 percent of North Carolina’s population. It is distributed as
follows:
Given the anticipated growth in the number of jobs located in North Carolina, the diversification of the North Carolina economy and its overall loss ratio, I would expect the growth rate of North Carolina’s P/C insurance marketplace during 2004 to approximate the growth rate experienced on a countrywide basis.
Joseph L. Petrelli is president and founder of Demotech Inc. (www.demotech.com), Columbus, Ohio-based financial analysis and actuarial services firm. Petrelli is a member of the Casualty Actuarial Society, American Academy of Actuaries and the Conference of Actuaries in Public Practice.