How Car Insurance Rates Compare by State as Rises Loom in 32 States

• The average US driver now pays $187 a month for full-coverage car insurance and $99 a month for liability-only coverage, according to Insurify’s October 2026 report.
• Maryland is the most expensive state at $302 a month for full coverage, while New Hampshire is the cheapest in the country at just $85 a month.
• Insurify projects rate increases in 32 states by the end of the year, led by a 4 percent rise in Connecticut and a 3 percent rise in West Virginia.

Monthly Premiums Now Range From $69 to $247 Depending on the State

Insurify published its latest car insurance snapshot on October 8, using data through September 2026, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive states has widened into a real financial divide. The national average sits at $187 a month for full coverage and $99 a month for liability-only policies, figures Insurify says held mostly flat through August before edging higher in September. A driver who carries full coverage pays roughly $2,244 a year at the national average, a bill that lands closer to $3,624 a year in the most expensive states and under $1,020 a year in the cheapest.

Those averages blend two very different products. Full coverage adds collision and other-than-collision protection on top of the liability coverage every state requires, which is why it costs roughly double what a liability-only policy runs. Drivers who finance or lease a vehicle typically have no choice in the matter: lenders require full coverage for the length of the loan. Drivers who own an older car outright sometimes drop down to liability-only once the vehicle’s value no longer justifies the extra premium.

The overall figure Insurify reports, $143 a month in September, blends full-coverage and liability-only policyholders together into a single national snapshot rather than describing any one driver’s actual bill. A driver checking where their own premium stands should compare against the full-coverage or liability-only figures specifically, depending on which policy they carry, rather than the blended number, which understates what a typical full-coverage driver actually pays and overstates what a liability-only driver pays.

The Most Expensive States in the Country

Maryland tops Insurify’s list at $302 a month for full coverage, $191 for liability-only, and $247 on the report’s blended overall measure. Rhode Island follows closely at $298 for full coverage and $238 overall. New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada round out the top five, with New Jersey’s full-coverage average at $257 a month, Delaware’s at $262, and Nevada’s at $260.

Several threads run through that top five. Maryland, Rhode Island, and New Jersey are among the most densely populated states in the country, which means more vehicles sharing the same stretches of road and a higher rate of accidents and claims per mile driven. Nevada’s position reflects a different pressure: Las Vegas and the surrounding Clark County area carry some of the highest uninsured-driver rates in the nation, and insurers price that added risk into every policy sold statewide, not just the ones in Las Vegas itself.

Where Insurance Still Costs the Least

New Hampshire sits at the other extreme, at just $85 a month for full coverage, $52 for liability-only, and $69 overall, the lowest figures in Insurify’s data. Wyoming follows at $94 for full coverage, Alaska at $97, Iowa at $111, and Idaho at $107. New Hampshire’s position traces back to one unusual rule: it is the only state that does not legally require drivers to carry auto insurance at all, though lenders and most practical considerations still push the vast majority of drivers to buy a policy anyway. That light regulatory touch, combined with lower population density and less severe weather than coastal states face, keeps premiums well below the national average.

Which States Are About to Get More Expensive

Insurify’s projections point to higher bills ahead in roughly two out of every three states. The firm expects 32 states to see rate increases by the end of 2026, with Connecticut leading at a projected 4 percent rise and West Virginia close behind at 3 percent. Connecticut has already absorbed a 10 percent increase earlier in the year, and Kentucky has seen a 7 percent rise, putting both states on pace for some of the steepest cumulative jumps in the country this year.

Not every state is heading the same direction. Insurify projects New Mexico will see rates fall by 3 percent by year’s end, with Arkansas, Minnesota, and Colorado each expected to drop by 2 percent. Insurers in those states have been adjusting rates downward after a period of smaller claims payouts relative to the premiums they collected, a cycle that tends to correct itself in both directions over a multi-year stretch rather than holding steady indefinitely.

Three cost pressures explain most of what pushes a state onto the rising side of Insurify’s list. Vehicle repair costs have climbed faster than general inflation for several years running, driven by more sensors, cameras, and computers packed into modern bumpers and fenders that turn what used to be a simple body-shop fix into a parts-and-calibration job running into the thousands of dollars. Replacement vehicle prices factor in too: insurers set payouts for totaled cars based on current used-car values, and those values have stayed well above pre-2020 norms even as new-car prices have cooled. Litigation costs round out the list, with states that see larger jury awards in auto injury cases generally carrying higher premiums across the board, not just for drivers who end up in court.

How to Lower What You Pay

A handful of concrete steps make the biggest difference in a driver’s premium. Enrolling in a telematics or usage-based program, where an app or a plug-in device tracks actual driving habits, can cut rates by as much as 40 percent for drivers who brake smoothly and avoid hard accelerations. Keeping a clean driving record pays off even more directly: a single DUI raises average rates by about 90 percent, and a speeding ticket adds roughly 39 percent, making a defensive-driving course or a careful commute one of the more reliable ways to hold a premium down over several years.

Bundling home and auto coverage with a single insurer saves about 15 percent on average across both policies, and maintaining good credit, where a state allows insurers to factor it into pricing, avoids the roughly 76 percent surcharge drivers with poor credit pay in those markets. Shopping three to five insurers at renewal time, raising a deductible from $500 to $1,000 or higher, and asking an agent to list every available discount, from paperless billing to multi-policy bundles, round out the list of changes drivers can make without altering how or where they drive at all.

Timing a shopping effort around a policy renewal date, rather than mid-term, tends to produce the biggest savings. Switching carriers before a renewal can trigger cancellation fees with the outgoing insurer in some states. Drivers who review their coverage every renewal rather than letting a policy auto-renew year after year catch rate increases earlier and have more room to negotiate or switch before a smaller annual bump compounds into a much larger one over several years. For a driver in Maryland or Rhode Island paying close to $300 a month, even a 10 percent improvement from comparison shopping works out to several hundred dollars back in their pocket over a single year.

None of these steps require waiting on a new state law or a court ruling to take effect. Every one of them, from adjusting a deductible to enrolling in a telematics program, is available to a driver the next time they call their agent or log into their insurer’s app, regardless of which direction their own state’s rates are heading this year. A 15-minute phone call costs nothing and often turns up savings a driver would otherwise keep paying for, month after month, without ever noticing.

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Sources:

• Insurify: Average Car Insurance Rates as of October 2026
• Insurance.com: The Nine Best Ways to Save on Car Insurance in 2026