US Insurance Agency & Producer Statistics 2026

1. Licensed Insurance Producers in the US

Producer licensing in the US is administered at the state level and aggregated nationally through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR), an affiliate of the NAIC. NIPR maintains the Producer Database (PDB), the central repository of licensing data from all 50 states, DC, and US territories.

• The Producer Database contains records on more than 5 million entities, covering both individual producers and licensed business entities across all jurisdictions.

• Each licensed producer is assigned a unique National Producer Number (NPN), which serves as a permanent national identifier across states.

• Licensing data flows in real time through the NIPR Gateway, which connects state insurance regulators with carriers, agencies, and producers.

2. Insurance Sales Agent Workforce (BLS)

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks insurance sales agents under SOC code 41-3021 in the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and Occupational Outlook Handbook programs.

BLS notes that commissions are the most common form of compensation for experienced agents, with independent agents often paid by commission only and agency or carrier employees compensated through salary, salary plus commission, or salary plus bonus structures.

3. Distribution Channel Market Share (P&C)

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America publishes an annual Market Share Report based on AM Best premium data. The 2025 edition, covering 2024 written premium, is the most recent.

• Total US property/casualty direct written premium reached $1.05 trillion in 2024, up from $952 billion in 2023, a 9.6% year-over-year increase driven by hard market conditions.

• The state with the highest independent agent penetration in 2024 was Massachusetts at 78.8%; the lowest was Alaska at 51.4%.

• Surplus lines utilization by independent agencies rose to 9.7% in 2024, up from 9.4% in 2023 and a five-year average of 8.7%.

• Independent agencies continued to gain personal lines market share over the long term, growing from 35.7% in 2020 to 39.0% in 2024.

• By line of business, the highest independent agent penetration rates were in International (100.0%), Multi-Peril Crop (96.9%), and Private Crop (96.4%). The lowest were Financial Guaranty (4%), Mortgage Guaranty (14%), and Private Passenger Auto (32%).

4. Number of Independent Insurance Agencies

Estimates of the total number of independent insurance agencies in the US come from a combination of Big "I" research, OPTIS Partners industry analysis, and trade press reporting.

• There are approximately 39,000 independent insurance agencies operating in the US, down from around 40,000 in 2022. Industry analysts attribute the decline to ongoing M&A consolidation, aging ownership, and succession planning challenges.

• OPTIS Partners estimates that roughly 30,000 of these independent agencies generate revenue of less than $1.25 million annually, and notes that the vast majority of small agencies have no clear ability to perpetuate ownership internally.

5. Insurance Agency M&A Activity

OPTIS Partners, a Minneapolis-based investment banking firm focused on the insurance distribution sector, publishes quarterly and year-end agency M&A reports that are widely cited as the standard industry benchmark.

• Private equity-backed and hybrid brokers accounted for roughly 72% of all insurance agency M&A transactions in 2025, continuing a multi-year pattern of PE dominance in the buyer pool.

• Property/casualty agencies were the largest seller category, representing 455 transactions or 66% of total 2025 deal volume.

• BroadStreet Partners led all buyers in 2025 with 29 acquisitions (down sharply from 90 in 2024). Hub International followed with 49 deals, and Inszone Insurance Services completed 45.

• Six firms with revenues exceeding $25 million were sold in 2025, including Assured Partners (to Arthur J. Gallagher), Risk Strategies and One80 (to Brown & Brown), and CAC Group (to The Baldwin Group).

• OPTIS describes the current pace as a "new normal" of roughly 750–800 deals per year, with consolidation expected to continue given the large pool of small, non-perpetuating agencies.

6. Aging Workforce and the Talent Gap

Multiple industry sources, including the US Chamber of Commerce, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Jacobson Group, Deloitte, and Accenture, have flagged the insurance industry's demographic profile as a structural challenge over the next decade.

• Approximately 400,000 insurance industry positions are projected to go unfilled over the next decade as retirements accelerate, according to figures cited by the US Chamber of Commerce and BLS.

• The US Chamber of Commerce reports that BLS projects roughly 50% of the current insurance workforce aged 55 and older will retire by the early 2030s.

• The median age across insurance carriers and related activities is 44, compared with the national workforce median of 42.2.

• Around 1.37 million insurance professionals are aged 55 or older, nearly one in four workers, while only about 214,000 are between the ages of 20 and 24, a roughly 6-to-1 ratio of retirement-age workers to young entrants.

• In the last 10 years, the number of insurance professionals aged 55 and older has increased by approximately 74%, according to Accenture analysis of BLS data.

7. Commission Rates by Line of Business

Commission data is published annually by the Big "I" Market Share Report, drawn from AM Best filings. Figures below reflect 2023 commission rates as reported in the 2024 Market Share Report, the most recent year for which line-by-line averages are publicly disclosed in summary form.

• The highest state-level average commission rate was the District of Columbia at 13.8%; the lowest was Delaware at 9.9%.

• The 11.4% national average has been stable, matching the five-year average through 2023.

8. Underwriting Performance Context

Distribution and producer trends are closely tied to overall market performance. The 2024 P&C cycle showed meaningful improvement in underwriting profitability after several difficult years.

• The US P&C industry combined ratio improved to 92% in 2024, down from 96% in 2023 and 98% in 2022.

• Insured natural catastrophe losses in the US reached approximately $113 billion in 2024, according to Aon data cited in the Big "I" report.

• The highest loss ratios in 2024 occurred in Federal Flood (278.8%), Private Crop (93.0%), and Multi-Peril Crop (85.9%).

9. Producer Licensing and Compliance Operations

Producer licensing in the US is administered state by state, with transactions flowing through the NIPR Gateway, which connects state insurance departments, carriers, and agencies in real time. NIPR's annual report provides the clearest public view of the scale of licensing and compliance activity across the industry.

For context, NIPR processed 185.9 million transactions in 2025, meaning annual transaction volume grew by more than 29%. This acceleration reflects both rising licensing activity across the distribution system and the ongoing migration of state processes onto the NIPR Gateway.

Continuing Education and Multi-State Licensing

Every US state and the District of Columbia require licensed producers to complete continuing education (CE) as a condition of license renewal. CE requirements vary by state, line of authority, and license type, but typically fall within a range of 16 to 24 hours per two-year renewal cycle, with a portion required to cover ethics.

• NIPR centralizes CE transcript data for a growing list of states, allowing carriers and agencies to monitor compliance status and completed coursework when submitting license renewals.

• Producers who operate across state lines must maintain both resident and non-resident licenses, with each state setting its own fees, renewal cycles, and CE rules. A producer licensed in multiple states can face dozens of individual renewal and CE tracking obligations per cycle.

• Under the NAIC's state-based regulatory framework, licensing reciprocity exists between most states, but appointment filings, terminations, and regulatory actions must still be reported state by state through the NIPR Gateway.

Methodology and Sources

This statistics roundup compiles publicly reported figures from primary industry sources and trade publications. All data points are attributed to their original publishers. Where multiple sources cite the same underlying data (for example, BLS workforce projections cited by Accenture, Origami Risk, and the US Chamber of Commerce), the most direct and recent attribution has been used.

Primary sources referenced in this document:

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

• National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR)

• Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (Big "I"): annual Market Share Report

• OPTIS Partners: quarterly and year-end Agent & Broker M&A Reports

• AM Best: premium and combined ratio data

• Aon: natural catastrophe loss data

• US Chamber of Commerce: America Works Report

About Producerflow
Producerflow is a modern platform designed to simplify producer management for insurance carriers, MGAs, and large agencies. By centralizing onboarding, compliance, licensing, and data integrations, Producerflow helps teams reduce operational friction, mitigate regulatory risk, and scale distribution with confidence.