Age and health are the obvious inputs — here's the fuller underwriting picture that determines the number you're actually quoted.
Life insurance pricing is built almost entirely around estimating mortality risk — the statistical likelihood you'll pass away during the policy term, weighed against how much the insurer would need to pay out if that happens. Several specific factors feed into that estimate, beyond the broad strokes of age and health most people already expect.
Mortality risk increases with age in a fairly predictable, well-studied pattern, which is why premiums rise steadily for each additional year at application, and why locking in a policy earlier in life — even if the immediate need feels distant — tends to secure meaningfully lower lifetime premiums for term coverage compared to waiting.
Most insurers sort applicants into classes like preferred plus, preferred, standard, and various substandard tiers — each combining the factors above into a single classification that then determines your specific rate table.
Smoking status is one of the most significant single factors in pricing, often doubling or more than doubling premiums compared to a non-smoker with an otherwise identical profile, reflecting the substantial documented mortality impact of tobacco use. Certain high-risk hobbies (like scuba diving or piloting small aircraft) and occupations involving elevated physical risk can also factor into pricing or, in some cases, require specific rider coverage or exclusions.
Larger death benefits and longer term lengths both increase premiums in a fairly direct way, since the insurer's potential payout obligation and time horizon both grow. Premiums don't scale perfectly linearly with coverage amount, though — there are often modest economies of scale at higher coverage levels, since some underwriting and administrative costs don't increase proportionally with the death benefit.
Two people of the same age can receive very different quotes — the gap is almost always explained by health underwriting, not by anything arbitrary in how the insurer prices risk.
It's not uncommon for an insurer to come back with a counteroffer — a higher premium for the same coverage, a lower coverage amount for the same premium, or a different underwriting class than initially expected — after full underwriting reveals information not captured in the initial application. This isn't necessarily a final answer; applicants sometimes have the option to provide additional context, request a different insurer's underwriting (which can vary in how specific conditions are weighed), or adjust the requested coverage amount to better fit the offered terms.
A 30-year term policy doesn't simply cost three times a 10-year term policy at the same age, since mortality risk increases with age across the policy's duration — pricing reflects the insurer's expected risk integrated across the entire term length, which is part of why longer terms carry a more-than-proportional premium increase compared to shorter ones for the same starting age and coverage amount.
Policies that skip the traditional medical exam, relying instead on health questionnaires and database checks, often price somewhat higher than fully underwritten policies at the same coverage level, since the insurer has less granular information to work with and prices in additional uncertainty as a result. This trade-off — convenience and speed versus potentially lower-cost full underwriting — is worth weighing deliberately rather than defaulting to a no-exam policy purely for convenience if cost is a primary concern.
Statistically, women have historically shown longer average life expectancy than men in actuarial tables, which is reflected in many insurers' pricing as a modestly lower premium for women relative to men of the same age and health profile, all else equal. This varies by insurer and jurisdiction, but it's a commonly cited factor in standard underwriting practice.
Life insurance pricing is a detailed underwriting exercise built around estimating individual mortality risk — age and basic health status are the headline factors, but lifestyle, family history, prescription records, and even the specific underwriting class an insurer assigns you all contribute to the final number. Applying earlier, in good health, and comparing across insurers are the most reliable ways to influence where you land.