There has been a significant increase in demand for life insurance coverage in the United States, mostly from people under the age of 45.

According to the Medical Information Bureau’s (MIB) Life Index, which measures application activity for individually underwritten life insurance in the US, the demand for coverage was up by 2.7% year to date at the end of December. MIB says this is the largest historical year-end gain it has seen since the index began collecting data in 2001.

Another first in the history of the index: the number of applications from the age 0 to 44 demographic surpassed all other age groups in year-over-year percent growth at the close of 2015, increasing by 3.9% year to date while activity from ages 45-59 and over age 60 was only up by 0.1% and 2.3% year to date respectively.

"More than one-in-three American workers today are Millennials (adults ages 18 to 34), according to Pew Research — the peak ages for raising families and buying homes," says MIB Group’s CEO Lee Oliphant. "The transformative sales, underwriting and distribution strategies insurers have been focusing on appear to be taking hold, as this year’s Life Index results reflect very positive trends for this age group."