Insurance

Car Insurance Is Nearly Flat on Average, but Your State May Not Be

By Lena Ortiz / November 5, 2026 / Updated November 8, 2026

Smiling parents and their son laughing together on a sofa at home

Three numbers, then the caveat. Insurify puts the national average for full-coverage car insurance at $2,237 a year as of mid-2026, up 1% since the end of 2025. The federal price index for car insurance was 5.0% lower in September 2026 than a year earlier. And the gap between the priciest and cheapest places to insure a car is about $2,860 a year. So “nearly flat on average” is accurate, and also close to useless for predicting your own renewal. As of November 8, 2026, your state matters more than the national trend.

Key takeaways

Insurify’s mid-year 2026 report has the national full-coverage average at $2,237 a year, up 1% in the first half, and projects $2,242 by December.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) motor vehicle insurance index was down 5.0% from September 2025 to September 2026, while the all-items index rose 3.7%.
First-half 2026 state moves ran from +10.5% in Connecticut to -6.7% in Washington, D.C. Twenty-seven states rose, compared with nine in the second half of 2025.
Insurify expects increases in 32 states by year-end, so “flat” may not last.
Averages come from different data and different driver profiles. Compare your renewal with your own policy, not with a headline.

Two national numbers that seem to disagree

The BLS keeps the official yardstick. Its motor vehicle insurance index is part of the Consumer Price Index, and the September 2026 table shows it down 5.0% over 12 months before seasonal adjustment. For scale, all items rose 3.7% over the same stretch. On a seasonally adjusted basis the monthly moves were -0.3% in July, -0.8% in August and +0.1% in September.

Insurify is a private company that draws on a database of more than 250 million quotes from partner insurers. Its mid-year report says the national full-coverage average is $2,237 a year, up 1% since the end of 2025. Its October 8, 2026 monthly page shows $187 a month for full coverage, unchanged, which works out to roughly $2,244 a year. That page notes its national figure runs through August and its state tables through September.

Why the two do not match: they are not measuring the same thing. The BLS prices a fixed set of policies, holds the driver and vehicle characteristics constant, and uses calculated premiums rather than what people actually paid. Each October or November it also ages the sampled vehicles by a year and counts the resulting premium change as a price change. Insurify reports median quotes for drivers aged 20 to 70 with clean records and average or better credit, and its “up 1%” starts from the end of 2025, not from last September. Different clocks, different drivers. Neither number describes a surge as of this autumn, but I would not try to force them to agree to the decimal.

The older snapshot

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which is the regulators’ group, released its 2022/2023 Auto Insurance Database Report on February 13, 2026. It puts the average expense per insured vehicle at $1,281 for 2023, 19.24% above 2019. The NAIC itself warns that state-by-state comparisons are tricky because accident rates, repair costs and state laws differ, and that figures may be revised.

The state scoreboard, first half of 2026

This is where the average stops being useful. The table shows the change in the average annual full-coverage premium between the start and the middle of 2026, per Insurify.

State	Change per year	Percent
Connecticut	+$251	+10.5%
Kentucky	+$139	+6.4%
West Virginia	+$82	+4.7%
Illinois	+$76	+4.1%
Nevada	+$116	+4.0%
Washington, D.C.	-$277	-6.7%
New Mexico	-$97	-5.6%
New Jersey	-$164	-5.3%
New York	-$153	-5.1%
Massachusetts	-$86	-4.8%
Florida	-$106	-4.0%

Those are the extremes, not the whole map. Twenty-seven states rose in the first half, most of the remaining states fell, and Tennessee showed no change.

Levels still beat changes

A falling price can still be a very high price. Washington, D.C. had the biggest drop and the highest average in the same report. Here are the June 2026 averages from Insurify:

Rank	Place	Average full coverage per year
1	Washington, D.C.	$3,880
2	Maryland	$3,646
3	Rhode Island	$3,611
4	Michigan	$3,229
5	Georgia	$3,109
Lowest	New Hampshire	$1,019

Seven states plus D.C. average above $3,000. The top-to-bottom spread, $3,880 against $1,019, is $2,861 a year, or 3.8 times. A 1% national drift is noise next to that.

What may happen through year-end

Insurify projects increases in 32 states by December, up from 27 in the first half. For the full year 2026 it projects the largest rises in Connecticut (+15%), Kentucky (+8%), West Virginia (+8%), Illinois (+6%) and Nevada (+6%). Its October page lists projected declines for the rest of 2026 in New Mexico (-3%) and in Arkansas, Minnesota and Colorado (-2% each). These come from recent pricing trends and expected industry losses. They are projections, and a model’s guess about a state is not a promise about your premium.

Why your own bill differs from any average

The NAIC says insurers set premiums from the claims they expect to pay, and that state rules decide which rating factors they may use. For auto, it lists:

your driving record and claims history;
age and driving experience;
the type of car and what it costs to repair;
coverage limits and deductibles;
annual mileage;
an insurance score, which includes some credit-based factors;
telematics data on how you drive, where an insurer uses it.

It also points to pressures on the whole market: more extreme weather, higher labor and material costs for repairs, inflation and interest rates, rising litigation costs and sharply higher reinsurance costs (reinsurance is insurance that insurers buy for themselves).

A renewal-notice checklist

The NAIC advises comparing quotes from several insurers and making sure the policies cover the same things. Here is a practical way to run that, built from the NAIC’s guidance:

Put last year’s declarations page next to this year’s. Check limits, deductibles, listed drivers and listed vehicles.
Look for what changed in your own file: mileage, a claim, a ticket, a new car, a discount that expired.
Ask the insurer to explain the difference in plain terms and note the answer.
If you collect other quotes, use identical limits and deductibles so the prices are comparable.
Ask which discounts apply, including defensive driving courses, claims-free history, safety features and telematics programs.
Check whether your deductible is a fixed dollar amount or a percentage, and whether it fits what you could pay out of pocket.
If something looks wrong or unaffordable, your state insurance department is the place to ask about rules, discounts and rebates.

Frequently asked questions

If the national average is flat, why did my renewal go up?

Because the national average is a blend. Your state, your record, your car, your coverage choices and your insurer’s own pricing all sit on top of it. In the first half of 2026, Insurify’s state figures ranged from +10.5% to -6.7%.

Which number should I trust: BLS, Insurify or the NAIC?

They answer different questions. The BLS tracks fixed-profile premiums over 12 months. Insurify reports median quotes for clean-record drivers aged 20 to 70. The NAIC reports 2023 average expenditure per insured vehicle. Use each one for what it measures and be wary of mixing them.

Is comparing quotes worth the effort?

The NAIC recommends it, noting that each insurer weighs factors differently. The catch is comparing like with like: same limits, same deductibles, same drivers.

Will rates keep rising?

Insurify projects increases in 32 states by the end of 2026 and a national average of $2,242 in December. That is a projection, while the BLS data through September show a 12-month decline, so direction depends on the measure and the state.

Before you decide

Treat every national average as a weather report for the whole country: interesting, and not what is happening on your street. The useful comparison is last year’s policy against this year’s, then like-for-like quotes. If your renewal jumped by more than your state’s trend suggests, ask why before you pay it. For questions specific to your situation, your state insurance department or a licensed insurance professional can answer what an article cannot.