Auto insurance methodology

How we research auto insurance

We are not an insurance agency and we do not sell insurance. We are a comparison and information site. We do not know your price, and we do not pretend to. What we can do is show you what published sources say the average driver pays, for a stated profile, in a stated place, at a stated date, and point you to the carrier's own quote route for a price that reflects your own answers.

How we research

Our research follows the same steps for every auto insurance page on the site.

1. Start with the official source, not a roundup. For prices, that means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and the state departments of insurance. For rules, it means the state statute or the department of insurance page that states it. Secondary sources (articles, roundups, aggregators) are never the source of a figure. If an official source cannot be found, the figure is not published.
2. Copy the figure exactly as the source prints it. No rounding, no estimating, no "correcting" a source's own rounding. If two tables in the same source disagree by a cent because of rounding, we print the figure from the table we cite and say so.
3. Name the statistic, the profile, the place, and the date, every time. An average is meaningless without those four facts. Every published average on the site travels with a line naming the statistic (average expenditure, combined average premium, or whatever the source calls it), the source, the date, and the profile, and a "Current as of" date directly with the figure.
4. Check state law against the state itself. Minimum cover limits, SR-22 rules, and uninsured-motorist rules change, and stale tables miss the changes. We check each state's department of insurance or statute, and we record the effective date of the change.
5. Have every page reviewed by an editor before publication. Our editors are Enu Zehra and Ms. Kakka. They check every figure against its named source. A page is not published until the figures check out.
6. Re-verify on a fixed schedule. Averages are reviewed at least every six months. A figure past its review date is flagged, not silently left as if it were current.

The sources we use

National Association of Insurance Commissioners: 2024 Auto Insurance Database Average Premium Supplement, September 2026. This is the source of every state and countrywide auto average on the site. Countrywide average expenditure for 2024: $1,431.63 per year. Countrywide combined average premium for 2024: $1,612.81 per year. The combined premium is liability plus collision plus comprehensive. Geography: all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Profile: all insured vehicles, not any one driver's profile. The NAIC itself warns that state-to-state comparisons should be treated with a high degree of caution, because limits, deductibles, laws, and demographics differ between states. We repeat that warning wherever state averages appear side by side.

State departments of insurance and state statutes. These are the sources for minimum cover limits, SR-22 requirements, and uninsured-motorist rules on our state pages. Recent changes our research recorded include Hawaii doubling its minimums to 40/80/20 effective 1 January 2026; New Jersey rising to 35/70/25 effective 1 January 2026; North Carolina moving to 50/100/50 effective 1 July 2025; Virginia moving to 50/100/25 effective 1 January 2025, with the $500 uninsured-motorist fee repealed; Massachusetts moving to 25/50/30 effective 1 July 2025; and Utah moving to 30/65/25 effective 1 January 2025. New Hampshire is the only state where car insurance itself is not mandatory. Laws change, so every state page carries the effective date of the rule it states, and readers should confirm the current rule with their own state department of insurance.

NAIC Complaint Index. The NAIC publishes a complaint index for insurers, based on a three-year window of confirmed complaints relative to market share. We use it as the basis for future complaint-based comparisons. We publish no complaint ranking that we have not computed from the NAIC's own published index, and we publish the method beside the ranking.

AM Best financial strength ratings. AM Best publishes financial strength ratings for insurers. Where we show a financial-strength figure, it is AM Best's published rating, named as such, with the date it was checked. We do not convert ratings into our own scores.

What does a published average mean, and what does it not mean?

A published average is an average for a stated profile, not your price. The NAIC countrywide figures describe all insured vehicles. Your age, your vehicle, your driving and claims history, your ZIP code, and the cover you choose will move your price away from the average, sometimes a long way. An average is useful for one thing: comparing places and cover levels in broad terms, and spotting whether a quote you receive is in the usual range. It is not a quote, and it is never presented as one.

A published average is also a snapshot in time. The NAIC supplement is published annually; the 2024 figures were published in September 2026. When a newer supplement is published, we update the figures and the "Current as of" date. Until then, the date on the figure tells you exactly how old it is.

What we do not do

• We do not publish per-carrier auto premiums. No free source publishes them. Every per-carrier auto premium on this site is Quote-only: no price figure appears on the entry at all, not even a "from" figure. The entry links to the carrier's own quote route instead.
• We do not invent ratings. No carrier rating appears without its source, scale, and date stated on the same card. No "best company" verdict is drawn from averages, because averages cannot support one.
• We do not publish savings claims. No savings figure appears unless the basis (who saved, versus what, over what period, from what data, dated) is stated beside it in the same view. If the basis cannot be stated, the figure does not appear.
• We do not publish SR-22 costs we cannot verify. The only verified SR-22 cost figure on this site is Virginia's $600 fee. Other states' SR-22 costs are not published, because no free official source states them in a comparable form.
• We do not take payment for placement. No carrier pays to appear, to rank higher, or to be shown first. Sort order on results is by lowest price among published averages. "Best value" sorting (the lowest price among results sharing the same coverage rung and deductible) arrives only with live priced results, because it needs per-carrier prices to compare. Until then it is not offered.
• We do not show carrier logos, "Buy now" buttons, or lead-generation funnels. We ask for your ZIP code and basic facts only. We never ask for contact details, and nothing you enter travels to a carrier.

How often we update

Published averages are reviewed at least every six months; the next review is due May 2027. State minimums and rules are re-checked whenever a state announces a change, and at each six-month review at the latest. When a figure is updated, the "Current as of" date and the "Last reviewed" date on the page change with it. When a source publishes a correction, we correct the figure and add a correction note under our corrections policy.

Limitations: read this before you decide

• No comparison covers every insurer. Carriers that do not publish usable figures, write only in a few states, or sell only through agents may not appear here at all. Check a carrier's own site for the final price.
• A published average is not your price. See above.
• Averages go stale. Every average carries a "Current as of" date. An average past its review date is flagged.
• If your ZIP code cannot be matched to a state (some PO-box-only and military ZIP codes have no published mapping) the comparison tool asks you to choose your state instead. For US territories, no NAIC state average is published, so the countrywide figure is shown and labelled as countrywide.
• Sorting, filtering, and side-by-side comparison need JavaScript. Without JavaScript the full comparison is shown on the page, but it cannot be re-sorted, filtered, or compared side by side in the browser.

Sources

1. National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2024 Auto Insurance Database Average Premium Supplement, September 2026. https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/2024-adb-average-premium-supplement.pdf
2. State departments of insurance and state statutes, as cited on each state page (minimum limits, SR-22 rules, uninsured-motorist rules; effective dates stated on the page).
3. National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Complaint Index (public index, three-year window). https://www.naic.org/
4. AM Best, financial strength ratings (as cited where shown). https://www.ambest.com/

Questions or corrections: hello@countrypilot.net (email only) or our corrections policy. Content reviewed by editors Enu Zehra and Ms. Kakka.

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See also: How we calculate averages · Editorial policy · Corrections policy