For a $500,000, 20-year term policy, a healthy 30-year-old nonsmoker pays roughly $15 to $18 a month, a 40-year-old $23 to $27, and a 50-year-old $53 to $68, based on NerdWallet’s average life insurance rates updated July 21, 2026. South Dakota residents pay the same as buyers anywhere else, because individual term life is priced on age, health, tobacco use, and coverage amount — not on the state or county where you live.
The one qualifier that matters: these are averages for applicants who qualify for a preferred nonsmoker class. Your own rate depends on the underwriting class a specific carrier assigns you, and carriers assess the same file differently — which is why the honest cost answer is a range, not a single number.
Average annual premium, $500,000 / 20-year term, preferred nonsmoker
| Age | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | $213/yr ($18/mo) | $183/yr ($15/mo) |
| 40 | $321/yr ($27/mo) | $278/yr ($23/mo) |
| 50 | $810/yr ($68/mo) | $636/yr ($53/mo) |
Source: NerdWallet average life insurance rates, updated July 21, 2026. A separate June 29, 2026 survey by MoneyGeek, using a different carrier sample, shows the same pattern with slightly different figures — both are averages, not quotes.
Three things the table shows:
- The jump from 40 to 50 (up 152%) is much steeper than 30 to 40 (up 51%). Mortality risk accelerates in your 40s, and pricing follows it.
- Tobacco is the single most expensive rating factor. A 40-year-old male smoker pays about $1,143 more per year than a nonsmoker for the identical policy in the same NerdWallet data — more than four and a half times the price.
- Bigger policies cost less per dollar. Doubling coverage from $500,000 to $1,000,000 raises the premium by roughly 85%, not 100%, because part of every premium is fixed administrative cost.
Most people dramatically overestimate these numbers. The 2025 Insurance Barometer Study by LIMRA and Life Happens found about three in four adults overestimate the cost of a basic term policy, and healthy adults 35 and under guessed 7 to 12 times the actual premium. If sticker shock is what has kept you from applying, the real sticker is usually the price of a few streaming subscriptions.
Because pricing locks to your age and health at application, a policy bought at 30 keeps its age-30 price for the whole term. Waiting is nearly always the more expensive choice if the need is ongoing.