Life insurance application activity in the United States was on the rise again last month, and most of the growth came from sales to younger clients.

According to the Medical Information Bureau's (MIB) Life Index, which measures application activity for individually underwritten life insurance in the United States, more people applied for life insurance last month than they did during the same month in 2015. The demand for individually underwritten life insurance rose 6.4% across all age groups last month, year-over-year.

String of good months

MIB notes that January is just one in a string of good months, as it follows six straight quarters of increasing underwriting activity. "Composite application activity in January outpaced that of the prior December by 5.0%. It was the largest month-over-month percent gain for this time period since the Index started in 2001," reads the MIB report.

Young clients

Once again applications from the 0 to 44 age group outpaced all other age groups, marking a trend away from previous years in which most of the volume was due to sales to older demographics. "Application activity ages 0-44 was up 8.4%, ages 45-59 was up 4.4%, and ages 60+ was up 3.9%, year-over-year," says the MIB. "This January marks the start of the sixth consecutive quarter of solid growth for the 0-44 age group as insurers’ sales and marketing investments continue to reach younger age purchasers."