Car Insurance Cost by State

The short answer

Louisiana is the most expensive state for car insurance in 2026, at $4,290 a year for full coverage and $1,256 for minimum coverage, and Wyoming is the cheapest, at $1,148 for full coverage and $192 for minimum, per NerdWallet’s November 2026 rate analysis. The gap is $3,142 a year for full coverage, and Louisiana costs 3.74 times Wyoming for the same driver, the same car, and the same record, because the state is the price, not the driver. The ten most expensive states for full coverage are Louisiana at $4,290, New Jersey at $3,718, Texas at $3,640, Nevada at $3,497, Kentucky at $3,298, Colorado at $3,283, Rhode Island at $3,226, Georgia at $3,160, Florida at $3,151, and Maryland at $3,043. The five cheapest are Wyoming at $1,148, Vermont at $1,556, New Hampshire at $1,578, Maine at $1,711, and North Carolina at $1,789. The national average is $2,357 for full coverage and $650 for minimum, and the state table below prices all fifty states and Washington, D.C., for the same 35-year-old driver with good credit and a clean record, driving a 2023 Toyota Camry LE, with 100/300/50 liability limits and collision and comprehensive at $1,000 deductibles.

The table is the whole country, cheapest to dearest, from NerdWallet’s November 2026 analysis. The five cheapest states are all rural and cold or small, and the five dearest are all dense, litigious, or storm-prone, and the pattern is not a coincidence, because the premium is the expected cost of the claims in the state, and the claims follow the roads, the weather, the courts, and the uninsured. The minimum column tells its own story: Wyoming’s minimum is $192 a year, which is $16.00 a month, and New Jersey’s is $1,608, which is $134.00 a month, and the minimum is 8.38 times dearer in New Jersey than in Wyoming, because New Jersey’s minimum limits are higher and its medical costs are dearer, and the minimum is not the same product from state to state, because the minimum is the state’s law, and the law differs.

Why Louisiana costs 3.74 times Wyoming

Louisiana costs more for four reasons, and each is structural. First, litigation: Louisiana allows direct action against the insurer and has a jury system that produces larger bodily-injury awards, and the awards are the claims, and the claims are the premium. Second, uninsured drivers: Louisiana has one of the highest uninsured-driver rates in the country, and the insured drivers pay for the uninsured ones through uninsured motorist cover, and the cover is priced into every policy. Third, weather: hurricanes and flooding damage cars by the thousand, and comprehensive cover pays for the flood, and the flood is the claim, and the claim is the premium. Fourth, repair costs and medical costs, which are dearer in the dense Gulf cities than on the empty Wyoming roads. Wyoming is the opposite on all four: empty roads, few crashes, little litigation, and weather that is harsh but dry, and the premium follows the risk, and the risk is the state.

Texas is dear for a different reason: size and speed. Texas has the most miles driven of any state, and the highest speed limits, and the crashes at 85 miles an hour are worse than the crashes at 55, and the hailstorms in Dallas and the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast add comprehensive claims, and the uninsured rate is high, and the combination is $3,640 a year for full coverage, which is $303.33 a month. New Jersey is dear because it is dense: the most people per square mile, the most cars per mile of road, and the most crashes per driver, and its minimum limits are higher than most states’, and its medical costs are among the dearest, and the minimum alone is $1,608 a year, which is more than full coverage costs in Wyoming. Florida is dear because of storms and fraud: hurricanes damage cars, and the litigation around auto claims has historically been expensive, and the combination is $3,151 a year, and the state has been trying to reform it for years, and the reform has not yet reached the premium.

The curiosities: California, Michigan, and the income share

California is the curiosity, because it is the most populous state and the most expensive place to live, and yet its full coverage is $1,884 a year, which is $473 below the national average, and the reason is regulation: California bans credit-based pricing, and it caps some rating factors, and Proposition 103 requires the insurer to justify its rates to the state, and the regulation is worth $39.42 a month to the average driver. Michigan is the opposite curiosity, because it was for years the most expensive state in the country, and its 2019 no-fault reform cut the mandatory unlimited medical cover, and the premium fell, and it now sits at $2,952 a year, which is above the national average but no longer the worst, and the reform is the proof that the law is the premium, because the law changed and the premium followed. The District of Columbia is $2,655, which is above the national average, because it is a dense city with dense traffic, and the city is the risk, not the state.

The premium is also a share of income, and the share is the honest measure of the burden. Full coverage at the national average is 2.89 percent of the national median household income of $81,604, and in Louisiana it is 7.0 percent of the state’s median household income, which is the highest burden in the nation and more than double the national figure, per the Prime Capital Report’s 2026 ranking, which combined NerdWallet’s premiums with Census income data. New Jersey has the second-highest premium at $3,718, but it ranks only fifteenth by income share, because its median household income of $104,294 is among the highest in the country, and the income is the denominator, and the denominator matters, because the premium is the same dollars and the income is not. The driver who moves from Wyoming to Louisiana does not just pay $3,142 more a year, the driver pays 4.1 percent more of the household income, and the move is the cost, and the cost is the state.

What to do with your state’s number

Use your state’s number as the baseline, not the national average, because the national average is the country and the premium is the state, and the driver in Louisiana who budgets on $196.42 a month will be short by $161.08 every month, and the driver in Wyoming who budgets on the same number will be over by $100.75, and both will be wrong, because the average is not the state. Then apply your own multipliers: the age, the record, the credit, and the deductible, because the state table is the 35-year-old with good credit and a clean record, and you are not that driver, and the 20-year-old in Louisiana pays $8,576.36 a year for full coverage, which is $714.70 a month, and the 20-year-old in Wyoming pays $2,295.03, which is $191.25 a month, and the age multiplies the state, and the record multiplies the age, and the credit multiplies the record, and the product is the estimate, and the estimate is the starting point for the shopping. Then shop, because the company moves the premium by $2,459 a year for the same driver, and the shopping is free, and the saving is the premium, and the premium is the state times the driver times the company, and the company is the only factor you can change without moving, crashing, or waiting.

Sources

NerdWallet November 2026 car insurance cost analysis (updated October 1, 2026): national full coverage $2,357 a year, minimum $650 a year; full state table for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., median annual rates for a 35-year-old driver with good credit and a clean record, driving a 2023 Toyota Camry LE 12,000 miles a year, with 100/300/50 liability limits, 100/300 uninsured motorist coverage, and collision and comprehensive with $1,000 deductibles; rates from public rate filings obtained through Quadrant Information Services. Prime Capital Report, Car Insurance Cost by State 2026 (October 2026): Louisiana most expensive at $4,296 median full coverage, 3.7 times Wyoming’s $1,148; full coverage in Louisiana costs 7.0 percent of the state’s median household income against a U.S. benchmark of 2.89 percent; ten states above $3,000 a year. National Association of Insurance Commissioners 2024 Auto Insurance Database Average Premium Supplement (September 2026): drivers spent an average of $1,432 per insured vehicle in 2024, up 11.7 percent in one year, with Florida at $2,018 and New York at $1,981 the highest. All calculator figures were computed by this site’s calculator under the stated model.

Car Insurance Cost by State questions

Which state has the cheapest car insurance?

Wyoming, at $1,148 a year for full coverage and $192 for minimum coverage, per NerdWallet's November 2026 analysis. Vermont is second at $1,556, then New Hampshire at $1,578, Maine at $1,711, and North Carolina at $1,789.

Which state has the most expensive car insurance?

Louisiana, at $4,290 a year for full coverage and $1,256 for minimum coverage, per NerdWallet's November 2026 analysis. New Jersey is second at $3,718, then Texas at $3,640, Nevada at $3,497, and Kentucky at $3,298.

Why is car insurance so expensive in Louisiana?

Four structural reasons: litigation that produces larger bodily-injury awards, one of the highest uninsured-driver rates in the country, hurricanes and flooding that damage cars by the thousand, and dearer repair and medical costs in the Gulf cities. The same driver pays 3.74 times as much in Louisiana as in Wyoming.

Why is car insurance cheap in California?

California's full coverage is $1,884 a year, which is $473 below the national average, because California bans credit-based pricing and caps some rating factors, and Proposition 103 requires insurers to justify rates to the state. Regulation is worth $39.42 a month to the average driver.

Keep reading

• How Much Is Car Insurance Per Month?Full coverage is $196.42 a month nationally, minimum is $54.17. The state moves it more than anything else.
• How Much Car Insurance Do I Need?100/300/50 plus collision and comprehensive is the honest baseline. The minimum is the floor, not the recommendation.
• How Much Does a Speeding Ticket Raise Insurance?One ticket adds $665 a year for three to five years. A crash adds $1,157, a DUI adds $2,067.
• Cheapest Car Insurance CompaniesTravelers is cheapest among widely available large insurers at $1,588. Farmers is dearest at $4,047, a $2,459 spread.
• Car Insurance Cost CalculatorEstimate your premium by state, age, record, and credit, and see what it costs over ten years.