Nearly all U.S. life insurance product lines showed strong growth in the first quarter of 2011, according to figures tracked by LIMRA, a worldwide association of life insurance and financial services companies.

New individual life insurance premiums increased by 8 percent in the first quarter compared with first-quarter 2010, driven by double-digit gains in universal life, variable universal life and whole life premiums. Sales of term life products, on the other hand, decreased by 11 percent in the first quarter. The number of universal life policies issued in the first quarter increased by 18 percent compared with the previous year.

Sixty-five percent of life insurers were able to increase their sales of life products for the quarter, including 16 of the 20 largest companies, according to the LIMRA report.

Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group Inc.’s earnings from life insurance sales increased by 35 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2010, due primarily to “improved mortality experience,” the company said. Principal recorded $59.5 million in operating earnings from life insurance sales in the first quarter, compared with $44.1 million in the first quarter of 2010.