Objective The aim of this study was to estimate the progress of insomnia prevalence and incidence over the past several years. Also, this study compared survival rates between individuals with and without insomnia.Methods The National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) from 2002–2013 was used for this study. Prevalent cases of insomnia were defined using ICD-10 codes F51.0 or G47.0, or a prescription of sedatives. Cox’s proportional hazard analysis was conducted to compare survival rates between insomnia patients and people without insomnia.Results In 2013, there were 46,167 (5.78%) insomnia patients over 20 years old in this cohort. Insomnia was more common among women and the elderly. Annual incidence over the past several years remained steady but the prevalence increased. The survival of insomnia patients was lower than that of people without insomnia, and the hazard ratio for overall mortality was 1.702 (p<0.001).Conclusion This large-scale population-based cohort study provided current epidemiologic indicators of insomnia in the Korean general population.