Insurance Agent Trends and Statistics (2026)

Insurance sales continue to be a solid option for stable employment and opportunity. With steady demand, strong income potential and a variety of specialization options, insurance sales is an attractive career choice.

However, not all lines of insurance are the same. Some provide stronger demand, and others show higher long-term income.

If you are looking for information about insurance agents and the opportunities they face, read on. We've gathered the key insurance agent statistics for 2026, from the government and industry sources that publish them, to give you a complete picture of the industry opportunity.

Insurance Agent Employment Statistics

There were 572,600 insurance sales agent jobs in the US in 2025, including self-employed agents. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

The insurance industry as a whole employed 3,013,300 people in 2025: 1,618,000 at insurance carriers and 1,395,300 at agencies, brokerages and related services. (Insurance Information Institute, 2026)

Of the carrier jobs, 888,300 were at life and health insurers and 699,300 at property and casualty insurers. (Insurance Information Institute, 2026)

Employment at agencies and brokers has grown every year since 2016, when it stood at 1,105,000, while carrier employment has held at about 1.62 million since 2020. (Insurance Information Institute, 2026)

The states with the most insurance sales agents on payroll are Florida (47,560), Texas (47,060), California (41,160), New York (22,420) and North Carolina (20,540). (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

Independent Insurance Agency Statistics

Independent agencies placed 62% of all US property and casualty premium in 2025, including 87.7% of commercial lines and 39.5% of personal lines. Their personal lines share has risen from 36.7% in 2021. (Big "I", 2026)

There are about 37,000 independent property and casualty agencies in the US, with an average of 9.9 staff each, up from 8.2 in 2024. (Big "I" and Future One, 2026)

The average independent agency's marketing budget rose 44%, from $14,300 to $20,600, between the 2024 and 2026 studies. (Insurance Journal, 2026)

Statistics on Insurance Agent New Licenses

In 2022, 382,913 people nationwide took licensing exams for the first time. Of these, 221,568 passed, for an overall 57.9% pass rate. This is the most recent national compilation published by the NAIC. (National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2023)

A compilation of 2024 state data puts the national first-attempt pass rate at 59.4%, from 498,110 first-time test takers. Pass rates ranged from 75.7% in Illinois to 27.3% in New Mexico. (Testivity, 2025)

In Alabama, 61% of first attempts passed in 2025: 3,770 of 6,188 exams. (Alabama Department of Insurance, 2026)

Insurance Agent Income and Salary Statistics

The median insurance sales agent earns $62,280 per year, and the average is $81,480. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

The lowest-paid 10% of agents earn less than $37,330 a year, and the highest-paid 10% earn more than $138,140. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

Median pay is highest at health and medical insurers ($73,440), followed by property and casualty insurers ($63,810) and agencies and brokerages ($61,550). (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

The top-paying states for insurance sales agents are Massachusetts ($103,070 average), New Jersey ($102,460), New York ($101,750) and Minnesota ($100,270). (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

Insurance Agent Age Demographics

The median age of an insurance sales agent is 45.1. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

About 29% of insurance sales agents are under 35, and another 29% are 55 or older. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

52.4% of insurance sales agents are women. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

Insurance Agent Retention

About 15% of new career life insurance agents are still with their company four years later, a rate that has held between 11% and 16% for agents hired from 2006 to 2019. (LIMRA, 2025)

LIMRA and Finseca have put industry-wide four-year retention at 14% for years. (LIMRA, 2025)

Expected Insurance Agent Job Changes and Trends

Employment of insurance sales agents is projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, from 572,600 to 591,400 jobs, with about 43,100 openings each year as agents retire or change careers. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026)

52% of Americans own life insurance, and 38% say they need it or need more of it: about 92 million adults. (LIMRA and Life Happens, 2026)

Cost is the top reason people give for not buying life insurance (45%), yet most overestimate it. Adults under 31 guess the cost of a 20-year, $250,000 term policy at five to six times what it is. (LIMRA and Life Happens, 2026)

US individual life insurance sales set a record in 2025: more than $17.5 billion in new annualized premium, up 10%. It was the fourth record year in five. (LIMRA, 2026)

US retail annuity sales also set a record in 2025, at $464.1 billion, up 7%. (LIMRA, 2026)

Average approved rate increases slowed in 2025 to 8.3% for homeowners insurance (from 13.5% in 2024) and 3.7% for private passenger auto (from 9.7%). (AM Best, via Insurance Journal, 2026)

Medicare Market Statistics

70.6 million people were enrolled in Medicare in June 2026, and 57.2 million had Part D prescription drug coverage. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2026)

35.2 million people are in Medicare Advantage: 55% of beneficiaries with both Part A and Part B, up 1.1 million from 2025. (KFF, 2026)

More than 13.8 million people had a Medicare Supplement plan in 2025, up 2%. (Mark Farrah Associates, 2026)

More than 4.1 million Americans are turning 65 each year through 2027, more than 11,200 a day. (Alliance for Lifetime Income, via PlanAdviser, 2024)

64.6 million Americans were 65 or older in 2025, up 16.2% since 2020. That is projected to reach 71.2 million by 2030, when older adults will outnumber children. (US Census Bureau, 2026)

The average Medicare beneficiary can choose from 28 Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans for 2027, down from 32 in 2026 and a peak of 36 in 2024. (KFF, 2026)

About 2.6 million Medicare Advantage enrollees were in plans that ended for 2026 and had to choose new coverage, double the year before. (KFF, 2025)

31% of Medicare Advantage enrollees used an insurance agent to help choose their plan, compared with 9% who used Medicare.gov or the Medicare hotline. (MedPAC, 2026)

For 2027, the most a Medicare Advantage plan can pay an agent is $725 for a new enrollment and $363 for a renewal in most states. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2026)

From 2027, agents no longer have to wait 48 hours between a Scope of Appointment and a sales meeting, and can collect Scope of Appointment forms at educational events. (Federal Register, 2026)

How Insurance Customers Shop

53% of Americans would rather buy life insurance through a financial professional, 43% would research online and then buy in person, and 25% would research and buy entirely online. (LIMRA and Life Happens, 2026)

62% of Americans use social media for financial or insurance information, and YouTube (66%) has overtaken Facebook (62%) as the most used. (LIMRA and Life Happens, 2026)

97% of consumers read reviews of local businesses, 68% will only use a business rated four stars or higher, and 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews. (BrightLocal, 2026)

45% of consumers now use ChatGPT or other AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before. (BrightLocal, 2026)

89% of adults 65 and older use the internet, and 79% own a smartphone. (Pew Research Center, 2026)

48% of new auto insurance policies are now bought digitally, up from 36% five years ago, and shoppers collect an average of 3.5 quotes. (J.D. Power, 2026)

87% of consumers say having a human agent is important when making insurance decisions. (Big "I", via Insurance Journal, 2026)

Insurance Agency Technology and AI

46% of independent agencies use AI, up from 15% in 2024. The most common uses are creating marketing content (49%) and analyzing coverage forms (43%). (Big "I" and Future One, via Insurance Journal, 2026)

65% of independent agents used AI for work in the past year, up from 37%, and those who use it save an average of four hours a week. Only 14% say their agency has implemented an AI tool. (Liberty Mutual and Safeco, via Insurance Business, 2026)

68% of independent agents expect to increase their use of AI, but 55% of agencies have no written AI policy. (Big "I" Agents Council for Technology, 2026)

Insurance marketing emails have an average open rate of 44.4% and a click rate of 1.36%. (MailerLite, 2026)

Size of US Insurance Markets

US property and casualty insurers wrote $976.8 billion in net premiums in 2025, up 4.1%. (National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2026)

Life and accident and health insurers wrote $1.51 trillion in direct premiums in 2025, including $233.4 billion for life insurance and $545.4 billion for annuities. (National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2026)

US pet insurance premiums reached about $5.7 billion in 2025, up 19.7%, covering 6.98 million pets. (NAPHIA, 2026)

US cyber insurance premiums were $9.14 billion in 2024, down about 7%, the first decline on record. (NAIC, via Business Insurance, 2025)

IBISWorld estimates these US market sizes (IBISWorld, 2025–2026):

Market	Size	Year
Health and medical insurance	$1.6 trillion	2026
Property, casualty and direct insurance	$1.1 trillion	2026
Business insurance	$288.3 billion	2025
Homeowners insurance	$175.1 billion	2025
Commercial auto insurance	$80.1 billion	2025
Workers' compensation insurance	$51.2 billion	2025
Long-term care insurance	$25.6 billion	2025
Disability insurance	$20.2 billion	2025