How great is life insurance? Pretty darn great.

In honor of Life Insurance Awareness Month, we're looking at some of the great things life insurance does for America, from protecting families to employing millions.

These statistics are proof that what you're doing matters. And that you should probably go out and do some more of it.

1. 75 million American families count on life insurers to protect their financial futures.
   Source: ACLI based on U.S. Census 2011, and Federal Reserve Board 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances.
2. Life insurance products pay out an average of $1.5 billion every day in the U.S. By comparison, Social Security pays out an average of $1.9 billion per day.
   Source: SecureFamily.org
3.  20 percent of Americans’ long-term savings are provided by life insurance, including annuities and permanent life insurance.
   Source: SecureFamily.org
4. $19.2 trillion: Total life insurance coverage in force in the U.S. at the end of 2011.
   Source: ACLI 2012 Life Insurers Fact Book
5. $75 billion: Approximate amount of annuity benefit payments paid to annuity owners in 2011.
    Source: ACLI 2012 Life Insurers Fact Book
6. $62 billion: Approximate amount life insurance companies provided in payments to beneficiaries of policyholders who died in 2011.
   Source: ACLI 2012 Life Insurers Fact Book
7. $75 billion: Approximate amount of annuity benefit payments paid to annuity owners in 2011.
    Source: ACLI 2012 Life Insurers Fact Book
8. $2.9 trillion: Amount of new life insurance coverage Americans purchased in 2011.
   Source: ACLI 2012 Life Insurers Fact Book
9. $162,000: Average size of new individual life policies purchased in 2011
   Source: ACLI 2012 Life Insurers Fact Book
10. Life insurance supports America
    2.5 million U.S. jobs are directly supported by the life insurance industry
    Source: SecureFamily.org
11. Life insurers have $4.5 trillion invested in the U.S. economy, making the industry one of the largest sources of capital in the nation.
    Source: The Heart of the Matter, LIMRA 2012
12. The life insurance industry is the No. 1 U.S. investor in corporate bonds, holding 18 percent of all U.S. corporate bonds.
    Source: The Heart of the Matter, LIMRA 2012
13. Life is good with life insurance
    64 percent of life insurance owners think they have a better quality of life than the average American (vs. 51 percent of non-life insurance owners).
    Source: New York Life’s “Keep Good Going” report
14. 92 percent of life insurance owners reported that having enough money to protect family against life’s uncertainties is important to living life as a good person (vs. 85 percent of non-life insurance owners).
    Source: New York Life’s “Keep Good Going” report

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