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SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (Tables) | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2012
Notes to Financial Statements [Abstract] |
Schedule of Capital Units | The following table is a reconciliation of the number of shares of the Company's common stock for the three-month periods ended March 31.
(In thousands of shares) | 2012 |  |  | 2011 |
Common stock - issued: |  |  |
Balance, beginning of period | 663,639 |  |  | 662,660 |
Exercise of stock options and issuance of restricted shares | 798 |  |  | 670 |
Balance, end of period | 664,437 |  |  | 663,330 |
Treasury stock: |  |  |
Balance, beginning of period | 197,329 |  |  | 192,999 |
Purchases of treasury stock: |  |  |
Open market | 0 |  |  | 3,100 |
Other | 199 |  |  | 151 |
Dispositions of treasury stock: |  |  |
Shares issued to AFL Stock Plan | (381 | ) |  | (325 | )
Exercise of stock options | (39 | ) |  | (81 | )
Other | (134 | ) |  | (78 | )
Balance, end of period | 196,974 |  |  | 195,766 |
Shares outstanding, end of period | 467,463 |  |  | 467,564 |
Schedule of Antidilutive Securities Excluded from Computation of Earnings Per Share | The following table presents the approximate number of share-based awards to purchase shares, on a weighted-average basis, that were considered to be anti-dilutive and were excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share for the three-month periods ended March 31.
(In thousands) | 2012 |  |  | 2011 |
Anti-dilutive share-based awards | 5,457 |  |  | 2,592 |

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- Definition Tabular disclosure of securities (including those issuable pursuant to contingent stock agreements) that could potentially dilute basic earnings per share (EPS) in the future that were not included in the computation of diluted EPS because to do so would increase EPS amounts or decrease loss per share amounts for the period presented, by antidilutive securities. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 128 -Paragraph 40 -Subparagraph c -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 260 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -Subparagraph (c) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6371337&loc=d3e3550-109257 + Details
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- Definition Tabular disclosure of an entity's capital units or capital shares, including the value of capital units or capital shares, units authorized, units outstanding and other information necessary to a fair presentation. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 946 -SubTopic 210 -Section S99 -Paragraph 1 -Subparagraph (SX 210.6-04.16) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6488278&loc=d3e603758-122996 + Details
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