Smoking trends have changed little in the past five years, according to a Strategic Insights report on the life insurance industry.

The report’s male non-smoker measure has increased slightly to 64.6% of policyholders compared with 63.3% five years ago.

The male smoker proportion has fallen to 8.4% of policyholders from 9.6%.

The proportion of female non-smokers has remained static at 24.3%, and there has been a decline in female smokers to 2.6% from 3.1%.

The report also examines how policyholders are distributed around Australia.

NSW is the largest market, with almost 35% of annual inforce premium, with Victoria and Queensland holding about 25%. WA has about 10% and SA 7%.

Tasmania, ACT and NT have very low market shares.  

AMP remains the market leader in Victoria with 20% of premium, Tasmania with 30.5%, Queensland with 15.5% and WA with 16.7%. However, these shares have declined in the past five years.

CommInsure leads in NSW with 16.4% of inforce premium, MLC dominates SA with 19.5%, OnePath leads the NT with 23% and TAL the ACT with 18.5%.

Policyholders aged 55-64 generate 30% of annual inforce premium, the largest market share. This figure has been steadily rising from about 20% in 2007.

The same age group also dominates by new annual premium, accounting for more than 20% of the market.

The biggest decline in new premium is in the 25-34 age group, dropping to 10% of the market last year from about 20% in 2007.