Demand for life insurance in the U.S. declined significantly during the month of February.

Each month, the MIB Life Index measures application activity for individually underwritten life insurance in the United States. The report for the month of February, released this week, showed a 4.5 per cent decline.

The U.S. life insurance market had experienced a record-setting eight consecutive quarters of growth that ended in Q2 2016. This was followed by declines in both the third and fourth quarters of 2016. This downward trend has now continued into the first two months of 2017, according to the MIB Life Index.

Demand dropped sharply for younger age groups

Broken down by age, U.S. life insurance application activity dropped sharply for applicants age 59 and younger in February. Application activity for ages 0-44 declined by 5.0 per cent and ages 45-59 decreased by 5.7 per cent. Ages 60+ was down slightly by 1.0%.

“At February’s close, the composite Life Index is off -3.6 per cent YTD…February’s results confirm that the long-term growth trend line for the MIB Life Index has shifted,” says MIB.