Business segment data (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Schedule of revenues, earnings before income taxes, interest expense, income tax expense, capital expenditures, depreciation, goodwill and identifiable assets by segment

A disaggregation of our consolidated data for each of the three most recent years is presented as follows (in millions).

	Revenues							Earnings (loss) before income taxes
	2022		2021			2020		2022			2021			2020
Operating Businesses
Insurance:
Underwriting:
GEICO	$	38,984	$	37,706		$	35,093	$	(1,880	)	$	1,259		$	3,428
Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group		13,746		11,575			9,615		393			607			110
Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group		21,915		20,197			18,693		1,389			(930	)		(2,700	)
Insurance underwriting		74,645		69,478			63,401		(98	)		936			838
Investment income		7,734		5,662			5,960		7,724			5,649			5,949
Total insurance		82,379		75,140			69,361		7,626			6,585			6,787
BNSF		25,888		23,282			20,869		7,708			7,861			6,792
BHE		26,393		25,096			21,100		3,146			3,293			2,548
Manufacturing		75,781		68,730			59,079		11,177			9,841			8,010
McLane		53,209		49,450			46,840		271			230			251
Service and retailing		38,303		34,832			28,178		4,771			4,481			2,628
		301,953		276,530			245,427		34,699			32,291			27,016
Reconciliation to consolidated amount
Investment and derivative gains (losses)		—		—			—		(67,899	)		78,542			40,746
Interest expense, not allocated to segments		—		—			—		(420	)		(455	)		(483	)
Equity method investments		—		—			—		1,863			886			657
Goodwill and intangible asset impairments		—		—			—		—			—			(10,671	)
Corporate, eliminations and other		136		(327	)		152		1,181			422			(1,572	)
	$	302,089	$	276,203		$	245,579	$	(30,576	)	$	111,686		$	55,693

	Interest expense									Income tax expense (benefit)
	2022			2021			2020			2022			2021			2020
Operating Businesses
Insurance	$	—		$	—		$	—		$	1,231		$	1,050		$	1,089
BNSF		1,025			1,032			1,037			1,763			1,871			1,631
BHE		2,140			2,054			1,941			(1,629	)		(1,153	)		(996	)
Manufacturing		739			704			737			2,403			2,193			1,795
McLane		—			—			—			66			61			71
Service and retailing		42			38			61			1,131			1,086			669
		3,946			3,828			3,776			4,965			5,108			4,259
Reconciliation to consolidated amount
Investment and derivative gains (losses)		—			—			—			(14,166	)		16,025			8,855
Interest expense, not allocated to segments		420			455			483			(88	)		(96	)		(102	)
Equity method investments		—			—			—			334			82			43
Corporate, eliminations and other		(14	)		(111	)		(176	)		437			(240	)		(615	)
	$	4,352		$	4,172		$	4,083		$	(8,518	)	$	20,879		$	12,440

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (Continued)

(25)Business segment data (Continued)

	Capital expenditures						Depreciation of tangible assets
	2022		2021		2020		2022		2021		2020
Operating Businesses
Insurance	$	82	$	62	$	50	$	69	$	72	$	74
BNSF		3,532		2,910		3,063		2,479		2,406		2,423
BHE		7,505		6,611		6,765		3,702		3,584		3,376
Manufacturing		2,477		2,100		2,133		2,021		2,037		2,026
McLane		93		106		98		176		189		204
Service and retailing		1,775		1,487		903		1,219		1,177		1,216
	$	15,464	$	13,276	$	13,012	$	9,666	$	9,465	$	9,319

	Goodwill at year-end						Identifiable assets at year-end
	2022		2021		2020		2022		2021		2020
Operating Businesses
Insurance	$	16,548	$	15,181	$	15,224	$	459,904	$	482,813	$	399,169
BNSF		14,852		14,852		14,851		77,752		76,586		73,809
BHE		11,745		11,906		11,763		118,114		113,447		109,880
Manufacturing		28,460		25,463		25,512		113,578		107,231		104,318
McLane		232		232		232		7,049		6,841		6,771
Service and retailing		6,282		6,241		6,152		31,291		28,221		26,173
	$	78,119	$	73,875	$	73,734		807,688		815,139		720,120
Reconciliation to consolidated amount
Corporate and other								62,645		69,770		79,875
Goodwill								78,119		73,875		73,734
							$	948,452	$	958,784	$	873,729

Schedule of premiums written and earned

Property/casualty and life/health insurance premiums written and earned are summarized below (in millions).

	Property/Casualty									Life/Health
	2022			2021			2020			2022			2021			2020
Premiums Written:
Direct	$	56,700		$	53,829		$	47,838		$	582		$	649		$	510
Assumed		15,143			12,461			11,533			5,235			5,685			5,960
Ceded		(1,155	)		(1,015	)		(898	)		(37	)		(40	)		(42	)
	$	70,688		$	65,275		$	58,473		$	5,780		$	6,294		$	6,428
Premiums Earned:
Direct	$	55,879		$	52,139		$	46,418		$	582		$	649		$	510
Assumed		14,184			12,072			11,449			5,332			5,713			5,973
Ceded		(1,293	)		(1,054	)		(907	)		(39	)		(41	)		(42	)
	$	68,770		$	63,157		$	56,960		$	5,875		$	6,321		$	6,441

Schedule of insurance premiums written by geographic region

Insurance premiums written by geographic region (based upon the domicile of the insured or reinsured) are summarized below (in millions).

	Property/Casualty						Life/Health
	2022		2021		2020		2022		2021		2020
United States	$	59,648	$	55,451	$	50,250	$	2,120	$	2,161	$	2,820
Western Europe		4,901		4,613		3,751		1,235		1,298		1,120
Asia Pacific		4,699		3,822		3,410		1,704		2,030		1,652
All other		1,440		1,389		1,062		721		805		836
	$	70,688	$	65,275	$	58,473	$	5,780	$	6,294	$	6,428