Car Insurance Cost Gap Between the Cheapest and Most Expensive States More Than Doubles to $2,200

The United States has one of the widest state-to-state car insurance cost gaps, and that gap has increased dramatically in recent years. Drivers in the most expensive state, New York, will pay more than $3,600 for a full-coverage car insurance policy in 2026, while drivers in the least expensive state, Ohio, will pay less than $1,500 for the same coverage. This shocking difference is nowhere near the gap recorded just five years ago.

According to data presented by Insuranceopedia.com, the gap between the cheapest and most expensive state for car insurance has more than doubled over the past five years, rising from $890 to nearly $2,200.

The State-to-State Insurance Gap Grew Faster Than Premiums, Up 146% Since 2021

Although car insurance costs have risen sharply across the United States, the gap between the cheapest and most expensive states has grown even faster, meaning where you live now has a much bigger impact on your insurance bill than it did just five years ago.

To better explain what kind of price surge Americans are dealing with, Insuranceopedia compared the car insurance cost gap between the cheapest and most expensive states in 2021 and 2026, and the difference is quite shocking.

Five years ago, the least expensive state to buy a full-coverage car insurance policy was Maine, where drivers paid an average of $792. The most expensive state for the same coverage that year was Louisiana, where drivers paid $,1682 for a full-coverage policy, meaning the cost gap was $890. While a lot, it is not even close to the price gap seen on the market today.

The most expensive state for car insurance in 2026 is New York, where drivers pay over $3,600 for a full-coverage insurance policy, more than twice the national average of $1,702. In other words, the amount of money New Yorkers have to pull out of their pockets for car insurance is enough to cover more than two years of coverage for the typical American driver.

At the same time, the least expensive state for car insurance in 2026 is Ohio, where drivers pay $1,475 for full coverage, or $227 below the national average. This means the price gap between the cheapest and the most expensive state in 2026 is nearly $2,200, or 2.5 times larger than it was just five years ago.

This trend becomes even more striking when shown in percentage terms. While premiums increased 86% in the least expensive state and 117% in the most expensive state over the past five years, the cost gap between them soared 146%. It is worth noting that the states holding those positions changed during that period, with Maine and Louisiana ranking as the cheapest and most expensive states in 2021, and Ohio and New York taking those spots in 2026. Still, the gap between the two ends of the market grew nearly 30 percentage points faster than premiums in the most expensive state and 60 percentage points faster than in the least expensive state.

The Gap Between the Cheapest and Most Expensive States Is Now Worth Nearly 18 Months of Coverage

Another way to understand the growing state-to-state insurance gap is to look at how many extra months of coverage that difference could pay in the least expensive state. Back in 2021, the $890 gap between Maine and Louisiana was enough to pay for 13.5 extra months of full-coverage car insurance in Maine.

Five years later, the nearly $2,200 gap between Ohio and New York could cover almost 18 extra months of full coverage in Ohio. In other words, the cost difference between the two ends of the market is now large enough to pay for nearly a year and a half of additional coverage in the cheapest state.