States Where Women Pay Lower Car Insurance Rates
Online Quote Study Reveals Premium Savings for Female Motorists
May 2, 2009
Women are often unfairly stereotyped as being poor drivers.
For example, a grating infomercial from Grey Power Insurance features a maniacal woman driving crazily while screaming abuse during a traffic delay. A voice-over then intones “You don’t drive like her … so why are you paying the same insurance premiums as her?”
The latest statistics for auto insurance quotes from Insurance.com tell a different story.
Based on over 300,000 quotes for single-car and single-driver auto insurance during the first 4 months of 2009, the average minimum quoted rate for American female drivers was $1,710 per year. This amount is $124 less than the comparable statistic of $1,834 for men, and represents an average 7.3% premium cost advantage for women.
The above quoted rates are national averages, calculated based on rate comparison data supplied to drivers in 47 American states.
Latest Women Driver Insurance Rates by State
Premium data by individual state show even more favorable differences for female automobilists. Topping the list, women motorists in Wyoming were presented with rates 22.9% lower than those for men.
Below are the states where women experienced the greatest discounts in quoted premiums when compared with quotes for male drivers.
- Wyoming … US$1,489 per year ($442 less than average male premium)
- West Virginia … $1,741 ($353 less)
- Rhode Island … $2,243 ($304 less)
- Louisiana … $2,186 ($301 less)
- Utah … $1,655 ($283 less)
- Virgina … $1,516 ($250 less)
- Connecticut … $1,871 ($226 less)
- Colorado … $1,428 ($210 less)
- New Mexico … $1,563 ($197 less)
- Texas … $1,691 ($195 less).
Other States Where Women Pay Lesser Premiums
In over half of the following 15 states, female drivers had average premium quotes that were at least 10% lower than male drivers from the same state.
- Idaho … $1,223 ($195 less)
- Mississippi … $1,682 ($191 less)
- Iowa … $1,176 ($185 less)
- Delaware … $2,274 ($183 less)
- Indiana … $1,324 ($174 less)
- Washington … $1,668 ($171 less)
- Arizona … $1,738 ($164 less)
- Oregon … $1,457 ($161 less)
- New Hampshire … $1,423 ($155 less)
- Oklahoma … $1,676 ($152 less)
- South Dakota … $1,303 ($144 less)
- New England … $1,449 ($144 less)
- Illinois … $1,405 ($142 less)
- Alabama … $1,386 ($141 less)
- Maine … $1,210 ($141 less).
Girl Power Means Lower Auto Insurance Premiums
All told, auto insurance rates for women were lower than those for men in 43 of the 47 states that Insurance.com analyzed. Male motorists had modestly lower premium quotes than women in North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Missouri.
None of the statistics in this article definitely prove that women are better drivers than men, or vice versa.
Overall, these rates do show that insurance companies generally rate women as lower risks than men when assessing the probability of insurance claims. Therefore, women often do drive a better bargain when shopping for competitive car insurance premiums.
Sources for this Article
This article presents copyrighted data provided by Insurance.com, a leading provider of online insurance quotes dedicated to educating consumers.
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