Retirement Plans (Weighted-Average Expense Assumptions) (Details) - Pension Plan [Member]	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018	Mar. 31, 2017
Defined Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Table Text Block [Line Items]
Discount rate	3.78%	4.41%
Effective interest rate for calculation of interest cost	3.46%	3.84%
Expected return on plan assets	6.36%	6.24%

The effective interest rate used to calculate interest cost related to the Pension Plan.

No definition available.

Name:	sigi_EffectiveInterestRateforCalculationofInterestCost
Namespace Prefix:	sigi_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Weighted average rate for present value of future retirement benefits cash flows, used to determine net periodic benefit cost of defined benefit plan.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 715
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (k)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=82843861&loc=d3e1928-114920

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DefinedBenefitPlanAssumptionsUsedCalculatingNetPeriodicBenefitCostDiscountRate
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Weighted average rate of return on plan assets, reflecting average rate of earnings expected on existing plan assets and expected contributions, used to determine net periodic benefit cost of defined benefit plan.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 715
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (k)(3)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=82843861&loc=d3e1928-114920

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DefinedBenefitPlanAssumptionsUsedCalculatingNetPeriodicBenefitCostExpectedLongTermReturnOnAssets
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DefinedBenefitPlansAndOtherPostretirementBenefitPlansTableTextBlockLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_RetirementPlanTypeAxis=us-gaap_PensionPlansDefinedBenefitMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: