The number of individual life insurance policies sold in 2025 increased by 4.2% compared to 2024, reveals a collection of data on Canadian individual life insurance sales updated annually by LIMRA, at the request of the Insurance Portal.
The industry sold 709,324 policies in 2025, compared to 680,883 in 2024. The new LIMRA data collection, some of which has been revised since last year, shows that this is the second consecutive annual increase in the number of policies sold. In 2024, the industry sold 680,883 individual life insurance policies, compared to 669,033 in 2023, representing a 1.8% increase.
This trend appears to be a welcome improvement in an industry that has, on average, seen a shortfall of approximately 100,000 policies sold annually since 2010. That year, 733,941 policies were sold, according to LIMRA data.
Lower penetration rates
The low penetration rate of individual life insurance among the Canadian population is a contributing factor. The number of individual life insurance policies sold in 2025, estimated at 709,324, remains lower than the figure for 2010.
During this 15-year period, the Canadian population grew from 33.8 million to 41.6 million, according to a query conducted by the Insurance Portal in Statistics Canada's Table 17-10-0009-01, Population estimates, quarterly.
Over the same 15-year period, the rate of individual life insurance policies sold per 1,000 inhabitants in Canada decreased from 21.7 to 17.1.
2016 was the last year in which the rate of individual life insurance policies sold per 1,000 inhabitants exceeded 20.0.
If the life insurance industry had maintained the penetration rate per 1,000 Canadians achieved in 2010, it could have sold 902,541 policies in 2025, rather than 709,324. Only sales in 2012 exceeded the sales estimated based on the 2010 penetration rate. That year, 759,149 individual life insurance policies were sold, compared to the estimated potential of 749,289 policies.
If the penetration rate of 21.7 policies sold per 1,000 inhabitants achieved in 2010 had been maintained from 2011 to 2025, the industry would have sold over 1.5 million additional individual life insurance policies during that period. Instead, in 2025, there is a gap of 193,217 policies.
The largest gap occurred in 2024. That year, 680,883 policies were sold, rather than the 900,147 that would have been sold if the 2010 penetration rate had been maintained, as shown in the following graph.
Insufficient growth
One to two percent does not make up for this loss of coverage (for) Canadians.
– Cathy Hiscott
During a panel discussion at the Canada Sales Congress on September 30, 2025, in Toronto, Cathy Hiscott mentioned the 2% growth in the number of policies for the first two quarters of 2025, as reported by LIMRA. According to Hiscott, who is President and CEO of Managing General Agency PPI, “One to two percent does not make up for this loss of coverage (for) Canadians.”
Hiscott added, citing LIMRA statistics: “And remember, 31 % of Canadians are self-reporting ‘I don’t have enough life insurance” or “I don’t have any’.”
This statistic comes from the publication Canada’s Changing Consumer Landscape, which revealed the Canadian results of the U.S. Life Insurance Barometer Study 2023.
At the panel discussion, Hiscott took the opportunity to emphasize the importance of targeting a younger clientele, who are more open to life insurance than one might think. She cited data indicating that 55% of Millennials and 50% of Generation Z would be interested in a life insurance policy that guarantees retirement income.
Millennials are those born between 1981 and 1996, while Generation Z are those born between 1997 and 2012. Hiscott obtained these statistics from the 2022 Canadian Sales Force and Retention report, published by LIMRA in 2023. Additional statistics are included in the first video excerpt of the article Opportunity exists but life insurance industry’s issues hamper sales, covering the panel discussed above. The article was published on the Insurance Portal on October 10, 2025.
Term life takes the lion's share
Of the 709,324 individual life insurance policies sold in 2025, term life insurance accounted for the lion's share. With 365,832 policies sold, term life insurance represents more than half of all policies sold in 2025, at 51.6%. In comparison, the 228,672 whole life insurance policies sold in 2025 represented 32.2% of total policy sales in 2025, and the 114,841 universal life insurance policies sold represented 16.2%.
However, whole life insurance saw the strongest growth in sales by number of policies, rising 5.3% in 2025 compared to the 217,068 policies sold in 2024. The number of individual term life insurance policies sold also increased, rising 3.9% in 2025, compared to the 352,107 policies sold in 2024. Universal life insurance policy sales grew by 2.8% in 2025, compared to the 111,708 policies sold in 2024.
Premiums growing faster than policies
As for new annualized premiums sold annually, they have increased continuously since 2020. LIMRA data reveals that they reached $2.276 billion in 2025, compared to $2.081 billion in 2024, representing a 9.4% increase.
The average annual premium per insurance policy grew by 5.0% in 2025 compared to 2024, rising from $3,056 to $3,209.
Executive level subscribers of the Insurance Portal have access to LIMRA's entire body of sales data, including data on new premiums sold in each individual life insurance product category.
LIMRA has changed its calculation method
LIMRA has changed how it shares individual life insurance sales results collected in Canada with the Insurance Portal. Since 2024, the association no longer estimates sales results for insurers who do not participate in its surveys.
The association will now only share results obtained from its sales surveys. It also informed us that the 2024 and 2025 sales results were inflated by a new survey participant, an insurer it declined to name. LIMRA has therefore revised the data released last year for 2024. The 2024 and 2025 figures cannot therefore be compared to those released in previous years, explains LIMRA.
This year, the association provided a new dataset covering only the period from 2016 to 2025, compared to the dataset published last year. We chose to retain the data from 2010 to 2015 that we had already received from LIMRA.
LIMRA says that the data obtained through its surveys represents 93% of the Canadian individual life insurance market.
It should be noted that LIMRA no longer shares detailed reports of its sales surveys with the media. The report for the third quarter 2025 individual life insurance sales survey is the most recent one we have received.
