The States With The Least Expensive Car Insurance
Just like cost of living and average wages, car insurance premiums vary dramatically from state to state across the U.S.A. Countless components comprise the algorithm that determines just how much auto insurance costs in a given locale, and it isn't necessarily the states you would expect that have the lowest rates.
CarInsurance.com pulled together a great report that helps make sense of how insurance rates are what they are. A major impact is the matter of urban, rural, or suburban. A higher population density means a higher concentration of drivers and thus the associated accidents, while a more sparsely inhabited region means a lesser need for automotive repairs caused by crashes.
“States that have the lowest overall car insurance premiums on average may have lower populations, which result in fewer car accidents and less money paid out by insurance companies, resulting in cheaper insurance premiums,” says Lauren McKenzie, an insurance broker at A Plus Insurance in Liberty, South Carolina.
There are also other socioeconomic implications that help format insurance rates, like the safety and crime variables that carry so many connotations with them.
“If you live in an area with a high crime rate, a large number of accidents and large payouts, insurance prices will be higher there,” McKenzie says. “If you live in a state with busy, expensive cities where gas prices and rent costs are high, car insurance prices will be high as well.”
Different coverage requirements, too, play a large factor. States get to set their own mandates here (rather than such coming from the federal government), so while some states only make drivers have minimum basic liability coverage, other states may require drivers to have uninsured motorist coverage, personal injury protection (PIP), and more. Here, the basic principles of cost reign true: More coverage means more cost.
Other pieces of the puzzle are things like the chance of a natural disaster hitting a locale, as well as factors like the cost of repairing a vehicle, medical costs, labor rates, parts costs, and the price of healthcare premiums. The likelihood of a natural disaster affecting a given area also plays to the insurance premium, as does the matter of tort states (the insurance company covering the at-fault driver pays all costs) vs. no-fault states (regardless of insured driver's role in the accident, their own insurance company foots the bill of repair, medical, and other expenses).
Like we said, a lot of factors comprise automotive insurance premiums.
And now, the list you've been waiting for: The states with the least expensive car insurance in 2026:
| State | Average annual rates |
| Vermont | $1,660 |
| New Hampshire | $1,689 |
| Hawaii | $1,757 |
| Ohio | $1,783 |
| Maine | $1,808 |
| Virginia | $1,835 |
| Indiana | $1,894 |
| Idaho | $1,901 |
| Illinois | $1,938 |
| Maryland | $1,999 |
Based in Connecticut, Ross hosts The Hooniverse Podcast. He has been in the off-road world since he was a kid riding in the back of his dad’s YJ Wrangler. He works in marketing by day and in his free time contributes to Hooniverse, AutoGuide, and ATV.com, and in the past has contributed to UTV Driver, ATV Rider, and Everyday Driver. Ross drives a 2018 Lexus GX460 that is an ongoing build project featured on multiple websites and the podcast.
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