Skip to footer

Which state has the most expensive car insurance?

A new study from Insure.com breaks down the country's most expensive states to buy auto insurance. That study found that Louisianans pay nearly three times as much for car insurance as drivers in some states.

|
Nati Harnik/AP
Car exhaust wafts around commuter traffic in Omaha, Neb. A new study from Insure.com found that the US annual average car insurance rate was $1,510.
  • By Richard Read Guest blogger

There are plenty of reasons to like Louisiana, but auto insurance isn't one of them. According to a new study from Insure.com, Louisianans pay nearly three times as much for car insurance as drivers in some states. 

To compile its rankings, Insure.com got insurance quotes on over 750 different vehicle modelsfrom 10 ZIP codes in each state, plus the District of Columbia. And it went through that process with six major insurers: Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, Nationwide, Progressive, and State Farm. All told, that's roughly 2.3 million individual quotes.

The website then averaged each state's 45,000-plus quotes to determine the statewide rate and, thus, national rankings.

Just to ensure (no pun intended) fair comparisons, rates were calculated for "a single, 40-year-old male who commutes 12 miles to work each day, with policy limits of 100/300/50 ($100,000 for injury liability for one person, $300,000 for all injuries and $50,000 for property damage in an accident) and a $500 deductible on collision and comprehensive coverage. The hypothetical driver has a clean record and good credit. The rate includes uninsured motorist coverage." 

When all the calculations had been completed, Louisiana found itself in the unenviable #1 spot, with an average annual rate of $2,699. 

According to Insure.com, a number of costly factors helped push Louisiana over the top, including:

  • Bodily injury claims, which Louisianans are more prone to file than folks in other states;
  • Natural disaster claims;
  • Lawyers, which Louisiana claimants are prone to hire;
  • Elected judges, who decide cases under $50,000 and who may be "more likely to side with local people than insurance companies".

Just a few steps behind, Michigan is nipping at Louisiana's heels, with an average annual rate of $2,520. The sky-high cost is due in part to the fact that Michigan "guarantees unlimited, lifetime personal injury protection (PIP) benefits for treatment of injuries from a car accident". Over time, that has resulted in some very hefty payouts from insurers.

Here's a rundown of the five most expensive locales for auto insurance:

1. Louisiana - $2,699
2. Michigan - $2,520
3. Georgia - $2,155
4. Oklahoma - $2,074
5. Washington, D.C. - $2,006

At the other end of the scale, we find Maine, with an average annual rate of just $934. That could be attributable to the state's largely rural population, but more likely, it's because of Maine's heavily regulated graduated licensing program for young drivers.  

For comparison's sake, the five least-expensive states for insurance are: 

47. New Hampshire - $1,112
48. Ohio - $1,106
48. North Carolina - $1,085
50. Iowa - $1,028
51. Maine - $934

In this particular study, the national average was $1,510.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Which state has the most expensive car insurance?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0319/Which-state-has-the-most-expensive-car-insurance
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe