Car Insurance Statistics: 100 studies, facts, and rates

Car insurance is an expense that every driver must deal with. Although car insurance ultimately exists to protect all drivers on the road, it is an expense that get scrutinized, compared, and analyzed in hopes of diminishing its monetary impact. The North Carolina personal injury attorneys at Nagle & Associates have compiled an exhaustive list of car insurance statistics that take into account geographical location, gender, age, race, and COVID.

The effects of COVID on car insurance

• It is estimated that insurers will return $14 billion to customers because of the dramatic decrease in driving. 
• Property damage frequency was down more than 30 percent from last year.
• Severity of accidents was up almost 20 percent.
• People are driving about 12 percent fewer miles than they did last year.
• Traffic fatalities are up 4 percent.

National car insurance statistics

• The average car insurance premium in the United States is $1,548.
• Since 2011, rates have increased by 29.6% nationally.
• The least expensive state in the nation is Maine, with annual average premiums costing $935.
• The most expensive state in the nation is Michigan, with an average cost of $3,096.

10 most expensive states for car insurance in 2020

10 most inexpensive states for car insurance in 2020

Car insurance by model

• Vans were the cheapest car type to insure with annual premiums totaling $1,688.
• Sedans were the most expensive vehicle type to insure, with average costs coming to $2,275 per year.
• The most expensive car to insure in 2020 was the Mercedes AMG GT R $4,082.
• The least expensive car to insure in 2020 was the Subaru Outback.

10 most expensive cars to insure in 2021

10 most inexpensive cars to insure in 2021

Gender and car insurance

• There isn’t much difference between what women and men pay for car insurance, with women paying less than 1% more than men on average.
• But, this average varies by state, for example: women in Louisiana pay 5% more than men while men in Wyoming pay 3.7% more than women
• For most age brackets, male and female car insurance rates are similar – on average, women pay $740 per six-month policy, while men pay $735.
• But, for teens, the average male driver pays approximately 14% more for car insurance than a female driver, reflecting the risk exhibited by teenage male drivers.
• Between the ages of 20 and 24, male drivers pay 8% more than female drivers.
• Some states do not currently use gender as a rating factor for insurance premiums, these include: Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, California, and Montana.

Age and car insurance

• Drivers 55 and up experience the cheapest rates.
• A 16-year-old driver with a policy of their own would pay, on average, $6,600 per year for car insurance. This is more than 3x the average for drivers ages 23-85.

Average cost of car insurance for a 17 year old

Average insurance premiums for drivers in their 20s

Race and car insurance

• On average, drivers who live in black communities are quoted premiums that are $438 more per year than drivers who live in white communities. This is about 70% more expensive.
• In 2017, Consumer Reports and ProPublica found that in California, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas, premiums are higher in minority neighborhoods in general, not just predominantly black neighborhoods.
• In communities where more than 75% of the residents are African American, premiums average 70% higher compared to communities where the population is less than 25% African American ($1,060 vs. $622).
• In many metropolitan regions around the country, including Baltimore, New York, Louisville, Washington, DC, Detroit, Boston, and Orlando, the disparity of premiums is more than 50 percent between predominantly African American and predominantly white ZIP codes.

Technology and car insurance

• Auto insurance premiums are lowered by $8 a year on average if you implement electronic stability control (ESC) in your vehicle.
• Other safety devices offer basically no additional savings in auto insurance premiums – safety devices like a blind-spot warning device, lane departure warning, and night vision.
• No anti-theft device on the market saves more than 1% on average auto insurance costs.

Car insurance violation trends

• From every year from 2011-2019, a citation for leaving the scene of an accident (hit and run) will affect your auto insurance premiums more than any other violation.
• Getting caught using your phone while driving will raise your insurance rate by an average of 23% ($356). In some states this will raise your rate by more than 63%.
• Drivers can save about 6% on rates if they reduce their mileage from 15,000 per year to 7,500 or less miles per year. This is based on the average American driving about 12,000 miles per year.

Average increased cost of auto insurance by accident/violation

Sources

Insurance Information Institute
thebalance.com
nerdwallet.com
coverage.com
thezebra.com