China Life, Ping An and China Pacific Q3 sales forces: 616,000, 323,000, 182,000 on different bases

616,000, 323,000, 182,000. Side by side, the three figures are easily read as a league table, but they do not count the same kind of people.

According to China Banking and Insurance News (republished by Sina Finance and carried on Sohu on 2 November 2026), five listed mainland insurers, namely China Life, Ping An, China Pacific Insurance (CPIC), PICC and New China Life, have published their third-quarter 2026 results. The report gives the sales force size for three of them: China Life had 616,000 individual-insurance sales staff, Ping An Life had 323,000 individual sales agents, and China Pacific Life had 182,000 insurance sales representatives.

These figures come from media reports. We could not check them against the companies' original third-quarter reports, so readers should consult the official documents before citing them.

Three figures, three bases

The three companies use different terms: China Life says "individual-insurance sales staff", Ping An Life says "individual sales agents", and China Pacific Life says "insurance sales representatives". The report does not define these terms, so each figure can only be read on its own and should not be compared directly.

For China Life, the report says high-performing staff and high-growth new staff rose year on year, but this is a verbal description only, with no per-head productivity or new-recruit education figures.

Ping An: about two-thirds of new recruits have college degrees

According to the report, 66.3% of Ping An Life's new recruits hold a college diploma or above, up 6.5 percentage points year on year. Yicai's report of 28 October 2026 gives the same figure and says it covers the first three quarters of 2026.

The 66.3% covers new recruits only, not the education profile of the whole agent force. Neither report gives overall per-head productivity for Ping An's agents.

China Pacific: core staff average 91,000 yuan of monthly first-year premium

According to the report, China Pacific Life's core staff averaged 91,000 yuan (renminbi) of first-year scale premium per head per month, up 27.3% year on year. The measure covers core staff only, not an average across all 182,000 sales representatives. The report does not mention the education profile of China Pacific's new recruits.

PICC and New China Life: a single general sentence

The report gives no sales force size, per-head productivity or new-recruit education figures for PICC Life or New China Life. It says only, in general terms, that insurers' agent forces remained stable and that "productivity rose steadily".

Analysis: what this means for recruiting teams

These disclosures show that, when companies talk publicly about their sales forces, they offer more than headcount, such as new-recruit education and core-staff productivity. But each measure has a different denominator, so before reading a number, check whom it counts.

• When citing sales force size, state the basis too: individual-insurance sales staff, individual sales agents and insurance sales representatives are not interchangeable.
• When reading an education ratio, identify the denominator: Ping An's 66.3% covers new recruits only.
• When reading productivity, identify who is measured: China Pacific's 91,000 yuan covers core staff only, and it is first-year scale premium.
• Before quoting these figures to candidates or management, check them against each company's original third-quarter report.

The next time someone compares "hundreds of thousands of people at one company", the first question is a simple one: which kind of people are being counted?

Compiled by the F50 Editorial Team from public sources, for general reference only and not professional advice. Details are correct as of the publication date and may change.