Car insurance premiums can be mysterious. If you move, buy a new car or simply get older, prices can go up or down without a lot of explanation.
While those premium changes may feel random, your price ultimately ties back to different facts about you. Age and gender are two of the most common factors that affect your auto insurance rate. While not all states let insurers use these factors the same way, most allow them to be part of the equation.
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Average car insurance rates by age and gender
To find how insurance pricing differs on average by age and gender, NerdWallet looked at rates from some of the largest auto insurance companies in the U.S. across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Auto insurance rates across the country vary based on where you live, but national averages can give you an idea of what you might pay. We always recommend comparing car insurance rates to avoid overpaying.
Full coverage car insurance rates by age and gender
States require a certain amount of car insurance (or another form of financial security) to legally drive. A policy with “full coverage” includes enough insurance to meet your state’s minimum requirements, as well as comprehensive and collision insurance.
The cost of car insurance with full coverage is higher than a policy with lower levels of protection, since full coverage insures your car against damage that you cause, as well as a range of other types of damage.
The rates below reflect the cost of full coverage car insurance.
| Age | Rate for a woman | Rate for a man |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | $4,438 | $5,008 |
| 30 | $2,420 | $2,452 |
| 35 | $2,351 | $2,371 |
| 40 | $2,280 | $2,299 |
| 50 | $2,108 | $2,126 |
| 60 | $2,014 | $2,043 |
| 70 | $2,136 | $2,189 |
Rates refreshed October 2026.
Minimum coverage car insurance rates by age and gender
The lowest amount of insurance that you can get while still fulfilling your state’s car insurance requirements is known~ as minimum coverage.
A policy with minimum coverage comes with less insurance than a full coverage policy. This means you’ll pay less, but a minimum coverage policy can also leave you without enough insurance to cover the damage from a serious accident.
| Age | Rate for a woman | Rate for a man |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | $1,281 | $1,394 |
| 30 | $666 | $663 |
| 35 | $650 | $647 |
| 40 | $634 | $631 |
| 50 | $594 | $594 |
| 60 | $586 | $590 |
| 70 | $652 | $664 |
Rates refreshed October 2026.
Average car insurance rates for teens and young drivers
One of the groups that pays the most for car insurance is newly licensed young drivers. Rates for young drivers tend to be much higher because they’re more often involved in crashes than drivers with more experience.
Thanks to requirements that an insurance policy include all licensed drivers in a house, many young drivers join their family’s existing policies. This will make the original policy more expensive. But on average, the average price of car insurance falls as a driver ages.
While you can check out our full guide on car insurance for young drivers for more rates, the following tables will give you an idea of how much these drivers and their families pay for car insurance.
Rates for a two-parent household
Age of driver | Average monthly rate, teen shares family car | Average monthly rate, teen drives older car |
|---|---|---|
16 | $6,965 | $7,143 |
17 | $6,723 | $6,951 |
18 | $6,150 | $6,385 |
19 | $5,395 | $5,587 |
20 | $5,201 | $5,425 |
21 | $4,770 | $5,089 |
22 | $4,624 | $4,981 |
Cost of full coverage for young drivers who join an existing policy of two parents.
Rates for young drivers in a one-parent household
We found that the cost of car insurance is on average lower for households with a young driver and one parent.
Age of driver | Average monthly rate, teen shares family car | Average monthly rate, teen drives older car |
|---|---|---|
16 | $5,971 | $5,762 |
17 | $5,723 | $5,596 |
18 | $5,132 | $5,049 |
19 | $4,351 | $4,283 |
20 | $4,128 | $4,120 |
21 | $3,655 | $3,763 |
22 | $3,517 | $3,655 |
Cost of full coverage for young drivers who join an existing policy of a single parent.
Why age affects your car insurance rates
Age matters to the cost of car insurance for at least a couple of reasons.
First, age can clue insurers in on someone's driving experience. Young drivers have less experience and are most likely to be in a crash. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety states that teens ages 16 to 19 cause nearly three times as many fatal accidents as adults 20 and older .
Second, in most states a driver’s credit score affects their insurance rates. Young drivers are less likely than older drivers to have a deep credit profile, which helps nudge rates even higher. Conversely, the cost of car insurance for senior-age drivers is more likely to be lower because many have been driving and building their credit profiles for decades.
How gender affects your car insurance rates
On top of your age, many companies consider your gender when setting your car insurance rates. Our analysis found that starting at age 20, men pay higher average insurance rates. By age 30, women and men pay almost equal rates, but the price gap never truly closes. Across all age groups, men pay more than women on average.
In this case, there’s some data to back up the decision of charging young men more. A study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, found male drivers of all ages are 48% more likely than female drivers to be involved in a fatal crash. Younger men are even more prone to fatal accidents, with rates for male drivers ages 16 to 19 significantly higher than those for female drivers of the same age.
A note on our use of the term "gender"
In this article, NerdWallet uses the term “gender.” We recognize that this is different from sex. Gender is how you identify within society, while sex refers to certain biological attributes.
Some insurers don’t recognize this distinction and use the terms interchangeably. This means when applying for car insurance, they may ask for your gender, when they really mean sex.
They may also ask for identification that doesn’t reflect your gender accurately. For instance, a company may want the “gender” you list on your insurance application to match the sex listed on your driver’s license.
Deaths in passenger vehicles per 100,000 by seating position
Age | Male drivers | Female drivers |
|---|---|---|
16 | 5.3 | 1.6 |
17 | 7.5 | 3.1 |
18 | 10.5 | 3.2 |
19 | 13.7 | 3.7 |
Figures from the IIHS based on an analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System 2024 data. | ||
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How insurance companies set your rates
You’re likely to see different rates from almost every insurance company because each of them calculates premiums in their own way. Some care more about your driving history, while some care more about the car you drive.
Auto insurance companies are also limited by rules for setting rates that differ in each state. States right next to each other can have big swings in average costs due to local laws. For instance, a 35-year-old driver in Florida is looking at an average annual rate of $3,295 for full coverage. Cross the line into Georgia, and that same driver gets an average rate of $3,160.
As a result, where you live is one of the biggest factors in the price you ultimately pay. To get an idea of what to expect, check out average car insurance rates in your state.
Methodology
NerdWallet analyzed rates based on public filings obtained by pricing analytics company Quadrant Information Services. We examined rates for male and female high-school students for all ZIP codes in all of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Although it’s one of the largest insurers in the country, Liberty Mutual is not included in our rates analysis due to a lack of publicly available information.
All rates we analyzed pertained to “good drivers,” meaning they had no moving violations on record. Our “good” and “poor” credit rates are based on credit score approximations and do not account for proprietary scoring criteria used by insurance providers.
In our analysis, “young driver” profiles include drivers ages 16 to 22 who are currently attending high school or college. We worked under the assumption that the drivers for these teen profiles would have no credit history and wouldn’t qualify for any discounts for their grades, participating in a usage-based program or living away from home.
For a single-parent household, we used a 50-year-old male “good driver” with good credit driving a 2023 Toyota Camry LE with full coverage as the parent or guardian profile. When drivers share a vehicle, the teen uses this car 20% of the time.
For a two-parent household, we used a 50-year-old male “good driver” with good credit driving a 2023 Toyota Camry LE with full coverage and a 45-year-old female “good driver” with good credit driving a 2020 Toyota RAV4 with full coverage as the parent or guardian profiles.
When a young driver drives their own car, we used rates for a 2013 Toyota Camry L with no comprehensive or collision coverage
These are median rates, and your rate will vary based on your personal details, state and insurance provider.
Sample drivers with “full coverage” policies had the following coverage limits:
$100,000 bodily injury liability coverage per person.
$300,000 bodily injury liability coverage per crash.
$50,000 property damage liability coverage per crash.
$100,000 uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage per person.
$300,000 uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage per crash.
Collision coverage with $1,000 deductible.
Comprehensive coverage with $1,000 deductible.
In states where required, minimum additional coverages were added.
For drivers with minimum coverage, we adjusted the numbers above to reflect only the minimum coverage required by law in the state.
These are rates generated through Quadrant Information Services. Your own rates will be different.
Article sources
- 1.IIHS. Fatality Facts 2024 Teenagers. Accessed Jul 1, 2026.
- 2.IIHS. Fatality Facts 2019: Males and females. Accessed Jan 14, 2022.
