Where Do You Fall?

September is National Life Insurance Awareness Month. To "celebrate," we're reviewing the latest Insurance Barometer Study* by the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) and Life Happens, a nonprofit that provides a wide range of consumereducation information. Among other topics, the study examines who owns and who doesn't own life insurance.

Who Does and Doesn't

Overall, 51% of survey respondents reported owning at least one life insurance policy, unchanged from 2024. The gap in ownership between men and women has persisted throughout the 15-year study. In 2025, 54% of men reported having life insurance, compared with 48% of women. Not surprisingly, people earning $150,000 or more were most likely to have life insurance.

But even within that group, nearly four in ten reported not owning life insurance. Demographically, Gen Z and Hispanic Americans were least likely to own insurance. Study respondents without life insurance tended to be more concerned about their financial security than those who had it. Age appeared to be a factor in this concern. Gen Z was more concerned than Millennials, who were more concerned than Gen X.

Among study respondents who report having life insurance, 55% have only individual coverage (i.e., purchased in the retail market), 26% have only workplace coverage (provided as an employee benefit), and 19% have both types of coverage. However, other LIMRA research indicates that more Americans own workplace life insurance than was self-reported in this study. A combination of industry data and LIMRA research suggests that the share of Americans who have life insurance through their employer or union is closer to 40%. In general, people who have both individual life insurance and workplace coverage usually have the best financial security. They tend to have higher levels of coverage and are less likely to lose coverage due to a change in employment status.

*2025 Insurance Barometer Study, LIMRA and Life Happens