China's private health insurance market will grow fivefold to 1.1 trillion yuan ($167 billion) by 2020, fueled by fast-growing demand from the emerging middle class, a report showed on Wednesday.

As wealthy Chinese look for alternatives to the public insurance system, private health insurance has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 36 percent since 2010 and hit 241 billion yuan as of 2015, according to the report, which was jointly compiled by The Boston Consulting Group and Munich Re.

The fastest growth in the private health insurance sector is expected to be in reimbursement policies, which are more expensive but more flexible than the critical-illness policies that many Chinese have today.