The census in marriages as a percentage of population actually lag behind in the percentage of life insurance policies per population.  How can that be?  Marriage has always been one of the biggest triggers of life insurance purchases.   Most life insurance agents (present company included) have always suggested to newlyweds that purchasing life insurance should be on the list of actions to be considered when one gets married.

A good example of this disparity is the difference between Utah and Alabama in regard to these statistics.  Utah’s married population makes up approximately 57% of the total adult population of the state.  However, the policies-to-population ratio of 38.5% gives Utah a lowly rank of 45 out of 50 states.

On the other side of the spectrum, Alabama, whose married population totals 49.1% of the adult population (a rank of 32), has a policies-to-population ratio of 138.5%.  life insurance agents must be on the ball in that state.

All kidding aside, some suggest the low policies-to-population ratio in Utah might have to do with the age at which young folks get married there.  The average age of women getting married in Utah  is 24.2 years of age.  At that age, many are just starting careers (or families in some cases), so the spending priorities might be stretched a bit thin.