Women now pay less for auto insurance than men, the Zebra

In a shift from recent years, men in the United States now pay more for auto insurance than women, according to a recent study from The Zebra. While there are seven states in the U.S. that do not use gender as a rating factor, women pay an average of $33 less, or 1.5% less, in 39 states and pay more than men in only four states and Washington D.C. In a previous 2018 analysis by The Zebra, however, women paid an average of $10 more for auto insurance than men.

"Insurance companies look to gender — in combination with many other factors — as a predictor of how safely a person will drive, how many claims they will file and how many accidents they'll get into. Essentially, the rating factors help predict the risk that the person presents to the insurance company," wrote Susan Meyer, insurance analyst at The Zebra, in an email to Digital Insurance.

Premium differences vary depending on state, with some states like Michigan seeing as little as a $1 difference between gender demographics. The highest premium differences are seen in Idaho, Missouri, Texas and Wyoming, where male drivers pay 4% to 5%, or $59 to $140, more than female drivers.

The Zebra report shares that men pay more for their auto coverage likely because of data that shows male drivers are more likely to be in an accident. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), more men are involved in fatal or serious vehicle accidents on average, and male drivers are more likely to engage in risky driving behaviors such as speeding, driving without a seat belt or driving under the influence of alcohol. One IIHS statistic also shared in The Zebra report reveals that the number of male crash fatalities was more than doubled the number of female crash fatalities for every year between 1975 and 2022. In that time frame, male crash deaths declined 6% and female crash deaths by one percent.

"All of the data has historically pointed to men presenting the greater risk to insurance companies. Men drive more by about 26% more miles in a year, have three times more motor vehicle crash deaths than women and file more claims. So in many ways, the lowering of rates for women now may be demonstrating a necessary market correction," said Meyer. "The rating factor now is appropriately aligned with the potential risk. So the real question becomes why rates for women were previously higher. There has been substantial investigation into this topic by many state insurance regulators with unclear answers. This is in part why some states have outlawed gender being considered as a rating factor all together."

Meyer explained, "Another possible contributor to this market correction is credit scores. Personal rating factors aren't looked at independently, but are combined as a whole when considering the amount a person will pay for car insurance. Credit score is another rating factor that has an impact on car insurance rates where the difference between a poor credit score and an excellent one can change your auto insurance rates by as much as 114 percent.

Back in 2018, men's credit scores were on average about 10 points higher than women's, whereas today they are nearly identical. This change in credit score then might be a contributing factor to women now paying less. It's impossible to look at credit and gender as independent rating factors, because the states that outlaw gender from being considered in determining insurance pricing also outlaw credit from being considered."

The Zebra analyzed data from over 32 million car insurance rates, with recent rate data at the ZIP code level, which comes from Quadrant Information Services.