2017 Auto Insurance Rates by State (updated)
How the crime rates, number of uninsured motorists and the weather in your state can determine your auto insurance premiums – plus car insurance rates by state.
The price of auto insurance is determined by many different factors. It can go up or down depending on your age, driving record, credit score, the type of car you drive and also your gender. But, did you know that how much you pay for car insurance also depends on where you live?
When an insurance company sends a request for the base premium for a state or specific area to the state Insurance Commissioner, they are using the statistics of claims filed or potential for claims being filed in a location. They want to make sure that they are not going to pay out more in claims payments then they are going to be collecting in premium. So if a certain location has a higher chance of having a claim, they want to make sure that they are charging a high enough premium.
Crime Rates
The crime rate in your state can have an impact on your insurance premium, specifically car thefts and vandalism. If you live in a state where you have a higher chance of getting your car stolen or damaged, the higher your insurance premiums will be to offset the claim payout of having to fix or replace your vehicle.
Liberal Monetary Awards
We have all see commercials for personal injury lawyers advertising their services to obtain financial compensation for those that have been injured in an accident. The high awards that these lawyers get for their clients end up increasing the premiums for everyone.
In the states that have judges that award higher monetary compensation and also have more lawyers advertising their services to help obtain these high awards, like Louisiana, they see the highest premium increases due to this factor.
Weather
You never know when Mother Nature is going to get ugly and cause damage. Statistically there are states, such as Oklahoma, that have a higher chance of seeing this happen than others and insurance companies keep track. States that are in “tornado alley”, flood prone states and severe weather states all have their premiums increased to compensate for the likelihood of a weather related claim.
Uninsured Drivers
Even though there are laws protecting those of us that are insured from them, uninsured drivers are everywhere. Not only are they a higher danger to us on the road, they are also one of the causes of our increased auto premiums. Because a driver that is not insured has no insurance company to pay for the damages that they cause, the victim’s uninsured motorist or collision coverage has to pick up the bill. This uncompensated claim payout then is spread out through all of that insurance companies customers for them to pay for in the form of higher premiums. Statistically some states have higher numbers of uninsured motorists driving up insurance premiums.
State by State Case (2017 updated)
While the insurance premiums can even vary within a specific state due to all of the above factors, there isn’t the room or the time to cover every single town and city across the nation. So instead we have provided the chart below for you to compare where your state stands in average premium rates.
National average | $1,318 | |
1 | Michigan | $2,394 |
2 | Louisiana | $1,921 |
3 | Connecticut | $1,897 |
4 | Rhode Island | $1,848 |
5 | Florida | $1,840 |
6 | DC | $1,696 |
7 | California | $1,673 |
8 | Wyoming | $1,538 |
9 | Delaware | $1,526 |
10 | Texas | $1,506 |
11 | Oklahoma | $1,476 |
12 | Georgia | $1,440 |
13 | Arkansas | $1,409 |
14 | New Jersey | $1,375 |
15 | West Virginia | $1,369 |
16 | Kentucky | $1,365 |
17 | New York | $1,352 |
18 | Colorado | $1,351 |
19 | Arizona | $1,348 |
20 | Nevada | $1,342 |
21 | Maryland | $1,327 |
22 | Mississippi | $1,326 |
23 | Pennsylvania | $1,313 |
24 | Oregon | $1,308 |
25 | Hawaii | $1,294 |
26 | North Dakota | $1,291 |
27 | South Carolina | $1,286 |
28 | Massachusetts | $1,242 |
29 | Minnesota | $1,241 |
30 | Alabama | $1,226 |
31 | Montana | $1,217 |
32 | Washington | $1,216 |
33 | New Mexico | $1,201 |
34 | Kansas | $1,192 |
35 | Tennessee | $1,186 |
36 | Illinois | $1,159 |
37 | Wisconsin | $1,154 |
38 | Alaska | $1,132 |
39 | New Hampshire | $1,124 |
40 | Nebraska | $1,112 |
41 | Missouri | $1,107 |
42 | Utah | $1,068 |
43 | South Dakota | $1,058 |
44 | Virginia | $1,040 |
45 | Indiana | $1,021 |
46 | Iowa | $1,017 |
47 | North Carolina | $1,010 |
48 | Vermont | $948 |
49 | Idaho | $942 |
50 | Ohio | $919 |
51 | Maine | $864 |
Most Expensive States , Least Expensive States (2011 data)
Most Expensive States 1. Michigan, $2,541 2. Louisiana, $2,453 3. Oklahoma, $2,197 4. Montana, $2,190 5. Washington, D.C., $2,146 6. California, $1,991 7. Mississippi, $1,896 8. New Mexico, $1,896 9. Arkansas, $1,836 10. Maryland, $1,807 11. North Dakota, $1,794 12. Connecticut, $1,786 13. Rhode Island, $1,747 14. Wyoming, $1,714 15. Hawaii, $1,707 16. South Dakota, $1,707 17. Georgia, $1,670 18. New Jersey, $1,663 19. West Virginia, $1,633 20. Kentucky, $1,629 21. New York, $1,627 22. Minnesota, $1,614 23. Washington, $1,584 24. Missouri, $1,563 25. Indiana, $1,518 26. Colorado, $1,508
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Least Expensive States 1. Vermont, $995 2. South Carolina, $1,095 3. Maine, $1,126 4. Wisconsin, $1,128 5. Tennessee, $1,146 6. Ohio, $1,152 7. North Carolina, $1,154 8. Iowa, $1,179 9. Virginia, $1,237 10. Utah, $1,272 11. Arizona, $1,280 12. Illinois, $1,290 13. Nevada, $1,300 14. Oregon, $1,306 15. Alabama, $1,306 16. Idaho, $1,325 17. Massachusetts, $1,328 18. New Hampshire, $1,334 19. Alaska, $1,454 20. Kansas, $1,461 21. Pennsylvania, $1,468 22. Nebraska, $1,470 23. Florida, $1,476 24. Delaware, $1,489 25. Texas, $1,492 |
Data courtesy of Insure.com
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Reviews (2)
Lori
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I moved from California to Oregon and my rates went up. Perfect credit history and driving record. Been driving 25 years. Single female. Oregon is flawed and insurance is included.
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Michele Griffin
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That is interesting that the rates went up when you moved out of California. Keep in mind though that insurance has a lot of different factors to it and the first thing that came to mind is that the area that you lived in while you were in California could have been rated as a safer area insurance wise than the place you are now at in Oregon. This does not mean that this is what is going on, but it is a possibility.
If you had to change the insurance company that you were with when you moved, this may have removed any longevity discounts you were getting also. I would sit down and compare the last declarations page that you were sent when you lived in California with your new one in Oregon and see if you can see any discounts missing or any other changes. I would also start calling around to different insurance agencies to get some quotes to make sure that the higher insurance is the same for your whole area and not just specific to the company that you are with.
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