The cost of life insurance in Canada, 2026

Life insurance has a reputation for being expensive. For healthy adults buying term coverage, the data tells a different story — and it also shows, in dollars, why “I’ll get to it next year” is the costliest plan of all.

What term costs by age

The single biggest driver of your premium is your age when you buy. Here’s the illustrative median monthly premium for $500,000 of 20-year term coverage, healthy non-smoker, across our carrier panel:

The curve is the point: premiums are near-flat through the late twenties and thirties, then steepen. Between 35 and 45 the median roughly doubles. Because a level term locks your rate for its whole duration, the age you buy at is the age you keep paying at.

The cost of waiting a year

For a 35-year-old, waiting until 36 adds only a few dollars a month — but that increase is locked in for the entire term. Over a 20-year policy, a single year of delay can quietly cost hundreds of dollars in total, for identical coverage. Waiting from 40 to 45 costs far more.

What moves your rate most

After age, two factors dominate: smoking status (smokers pay roughly 2.4× non-smokers in our data) and coverage amount (which scales close to linearly). Sex and term length matter, but less than most people expect. Comparing across all 21 insurers typically surfaces more spread than any single-carrier quote — which is where real savings live.