The data: Adult Gen Z Canadians are rapidly closing their life insurance coverage gap. 

The share with at least one type of life insurance nearly doubled from 30% in 2025 to 58% in 2026, according to PolicyMe’s Life Insurance Gap Report. That increase was considerably larger than the gains among millennials (+15 points) and Canadians overall (+10 points).

By comparison, US adult Gen Z policyholders inched up from 42% in 2025 to 44% in 2026, per LIMRA data.

How we got here: Gen Zers are reaching traditional life insurance triggers like buying a home and starting a family. 

Among uninsured Gen Zers, having a child (19%) and entering a partnership (18%) were the two biggest motivators for getting coverage in the next five years, per PolicyMe’s data. But this alone doesn’t explain why Canadian Gen Zers saw such a steep jump in coverage compared with US Gen Zers.

Housing costs may be another piece of that puzzle. Unlike in the US, where homeowners commonly lock in mortgage rates for 30 years, most Canadian mortgages have terms of five years or less and must renew at prevailing rates. About 60% of outstanding Canadian mortgages were expected to renew in 2025 or 2026, according to the Bank of Canada, and the majority of those renewals were expected to result in higher monthly payments.

Protecting loved ones from losing their home is a big policy motivator among Canadian life insurance buyers ages 25 to 29, homeowners request nearly 60% more coverage than non-homeowners their age, according to PolicyMe.

Implications for insurers: Even after this year's surge, 41% of uninsured Gen Zers said they lacked coverage because they simply hadn't thought about it. Many likely haven’t yet encountered the financial responsibilities that make life insurance feel necessary.

That gives insurers an opportunity to get ahead of those milestones rather than waiting until consumers actively shop for coverage. Educational marketing can introduce life insurance before marriage, parenthood, or homeownership and then become more targeted as those life events approach—putting an insurer in consideration when the need for coverage becomes concrete.

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