U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for May 21: Life Insurance

USA Profile Username: jon@newsinnovations.com / edit profile U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for May 21: Life Insurance PR Newswire WASHINGTON, May 21, 2016 WASHINGTON, May 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau: LIFE INSURANCE Profile America — Saturday, May 21st. Many things we take for granted in current society actually had their beginnings in Colonial America. And many beginnings in Colonial America took place in Philadelphia. The first known life insurance company was called the "Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers," chartered this month in 1759. Given the year and location, it should not be surprising that Benjamin Franklin was something of an inspiration, having helped launch the colonies' first chartered fire insurance company in 1752, also in Philadelphia. Now, there are over 132,000 insurance agencies and brokerages in the U.S., with over 655,000 agents and workers. The insurance industry is a $107 billion a year sector of the economy. Profile America is beginning  its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau. Sources: Date/accessed 2/22/2016: http://www.phcmontreat.org/ThisDayInHistoryIndex-May.htm Organizing & Chartering/accessed 2/22/2016: http://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaid3101presbyministers.pdf Benjamin Franklin: Kane's Famous First Facts, 4530 Insurance agencies, employees and value of receipts/NAICS 524210: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=BP_2013_00A1&prodType=table Insurance revenues/NAICS 524210: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/00A1//naics~524210 Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).  Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO   SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau CONTACT: Rick Reed, 301-763-2812; or e-mail: richard.thomas.reed-at-census.gov Web Site: http://www.census.gov Follow Us To change the settings for your profile(s) or email delivery, go to https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/profile/?action=editProfile and select the profile you would like to edit. You can select the industries, subjects, languages, geographical areas, companies, delivery options and delivery frequencies of your choice. In addition to current press releases, you can also find archived news, corporate information, photos, tradeshow news and much more on the PR Newswire for Journalists website: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com To contact us, email: mediasite@prnewswire.com Please do not reply to this email; this is an automatically generated message. Copyright © PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. A UBM plc company. Our mailing address is: 350 Hudson Street, Suite 300 New York, NY 10014-4504