2026-07-29
How much does life insurance cost in the UK? (price by age)
Short answer: less than most people expect. For a healthy non-smoker aged 30, £250,000 of level term assurance over 20 years costs in the region of £14 a month. The same cover bought at 50 costs around £48, and at 60 about £95. Life insurance is one of the few things that gets meaningfully more expensive the longer you think about it.
The figures on this page are illustrative order-of-magnitude estimates for a healthy applicant, not quotes. What you are actually offered depends on underwriting — your health, family history, occupation and the individual insurer.
What the price actually depends on
Five things move the premium, in roughly this order of importance:
Your age at application. This is the dominant factor, and it is fixed the day you apply. A policy bought at 32 keeps its 32-year-old pricing for the whole term.
The sum assured. Premiums scale close to linearly: £500,000 costs roughly twice what £250,000 costs. There is no meaningful discount for buying more.
Whether you smoke. Nicotine use in the last 12 months roughly doubles the premium — see below.
The term. A longer term costs more per month, because more of it falls in the years when you are older and likelier to claim.
Your health and occupation. Blood pressure, BMI, family history of heart disease or cancer, and hazardous work all feed the underwriter's decision. This is the part no calculator can predict.
Price by age
Indicative monthly premiums for £250,000 of level term assurance over 20 years, healthy non-smoker:
| Age at application | Approximate monthly premium |
|---|---|
| 25 | £11 |
| 30 | £14 |
| 40 | £24 |
| 50 | £48 |
| 60 | £95 |
The shape of that column is the whole argument for not putting this off.
Why the price roughly doubles each decade
Because mortality risk does. The chance of dying in any given year rises steeply and non-linearly with age, and the premium tracks it. Between 30 and 40 the cost of the same cover roughly doubles; between 40 and 50 it doubles again.
The practical consequence: waiting five years to "sort it out properly" is not a neutral decision. It permanently raises the price of every month of cover you eventually buy, because the pricing is set at application and never resets downward.
Smoking
Nicotine use in the last 12 months moves you to smoker rates — around 1.9× the non-smoker premium. For a 40-year-old wanting £250,000 over 20 years, that is roughly £45 a month instead of £24.
Two things worth knowing. Insurers ask about the last 12 months, so if you stopped more than a year ago you should be quoted at non-smoker rates. And most insurers count vaping, patches and other nicotine replacement as smoking — the question is about nicotine, not tobacco.
How the term length affects price
Using a healthy 30-year-old wanting £250,000:
| Term | Approximate monthly premium |
|---|---|
| 10 years | £12 |
| 20 years | £14 |
| 30 years | £18 |
A longer term costs more per month, but it also locks your current age's pricing in for longer. If your youngest child is eight and your mortgage has 22 years to run, a 10-year policy is cheap in a way that does not help you — it expires while the need is still there, and renewing at 40 means paying 40-year-old rates.
Match the term to when the need actually ends: the mortgage being paid off, or the youngest child becoming financially independent, whichever is later.
Level term is not the only shape
The prices above are for level term assurance — a fixed payout for a fixed term, the simplest and cheapest form of cover in the UK.
Decreasing term costs less again. The sum assured falls in step with a repayment mortgage balance, so you are not paying for protection you no longer need. It is the right tool for the mortgage layer specifically — see the guide to life insurance for a mortgage.
Whole of life cover pays out whenever you die rather than within a set term, and costs several times more for the same sum assured. It solves an inheritance tax planning problem, not a family protection problem. For most people sizing cover around a mortgage and dependent children, term assurance is the correct product.
A point that often surprises people: the premium may not be fixed
There are two kinds of pricing, and the difference matters more than the headline figure:
Guaranteed premiums stay the same for the entire term. What you agree at outset is what you pay in year 19.
Reviewable premiums start lower but are re-assessed periodically — typically every five years — and in practice they rise, sometimes sharply, precisely when you are older and least able to replace the policy.
A guaranteed premium is usually slightly more expensive at outset and almost always the better value over a 20- or 30-year term. Check which one you are being quoted; the difference is easy to miss on a comparison table.
Death-in-service is cheaper — but rarely enough
Many UK employers provide death-in-service cover, typically 2–4× salary, at no cost to you. It is genuinely valuable and you should count it.
Two caveats. It is usually a multiple of salary rather than a figure sized to your mortgage and children, so it is rarely sufficient on its own. And it belongs to the job, not to you: it ends the day you leave, retire or are made redundant, at which point you are buying cover at your current age rather than the age you were when you first could have.
Enter it under existing cover in the calculator so it reduces the gap rather than being ignored.
How to bring the price down without weakening the cover
- Apply earlier. The single biggest lever, and the only one that is free.
- Stop nicotine for 12 months. Worth roughly half the premium.
- Use decreasing cover for the mortgage layer and level cover for income and children, rather than buying level cover for everything.
- Buy two single policies rather than one joint policy. They cost only slightly more, pay out on each death rather than once, and survive a separation.
- Do not over-insure. Subtract existing cover, death-in-service and accessible savings before choosing a sum assured. Paying for £400,000 when the genuine gap is £250,000 is the most common way people overspend.
- Write the policy in trust. Free at application with most insurers, keeps the payout outside your estate for inheritance tax, and gets the money to your family without waiting for probate.
How to use the calculator
The calculator sizes the cover first and then shows an indicative monthly premium for it, using the same rate bands as the tables above. Enter your age, whether you use nicotine, the term you want, and your real commitments — mortgage balance, other debts, income to replace, education per child — then subtract what you already have.
If you want the sizing logic rather than the pricing, start with how much life insurance you need.