Fall 2026 Car Insurance Burden Report: Louisiana Households Pay Triple New Hampshire's Share of Income

A median-income household in Louisiana puts 2.87% of what it earns toward car insurance, the biggest share of any state and more than three times New Hampshire’s 0.92%. The MonitorBankRates Auto Insurance Burden Index ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia by how hard car insurance actually hits the household budget.

Cars driving and parked along a tree-lined residential street of large brick and stone homes on a sunny day

The MonitorBankRates Auto Insurance Burden Index (MBR-AIBI) answers a question a premium alone cannot: relative to what people in a state actually earn, where does car insurance strain budgets the most? Each state’s score combines its average auto premium as a share of median household income with its premium level against the U.S. average. A score of 100 is the national baseline; higher scores mean car insurance takes a bigger piece of the household budget.

Premium figures are the NAIC’s 2022 state averages for liability, collision and comprehensive coverage combined. Incomes are the Census Bureau’s 2024 ACS 5-Year Estimates. The numbers in this report are frozen as of September 1, 2026; the live index page updates as new data arrives.

Highest score 165.9 Louisiana · Severe

Lowest score 64.7 New Hampshire · Low

U.S. average premium $1,258 1.56% of median income

Above the baseline 20 of 51 states score 100 or higher

Key takeaways

Car insurance takes a bigger share of income in Louisiana than in any other state, scoring 165.9 on the index. Its average premium of $1,743 a year is the country’s highest, and against a median household income of $60,756 it swallows 2.87% of what a typical household earns.
Only two states rate Severe: Louisiana and Florida (142.1). Eight more rate High, and every one of the ten highest-scoring states touches the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic except Michigan and Nevada.
Mississippi shows why premiums alone mislead. Its $1,232 average is $26 below the U.S. average, yet it ranks 5th on the index because its median household income of $56,447 is the lowest of any state.
Car insurance takes the smallest share of income in northern New England and Hawaii. New Hampshire (64.7), Hawaii (66.8), Vermont (67.7) and Maine (69.6) hold the bottom four spots. Maine’s $835 average premium is the lowest in the country.
20 of 51 states score at or above the 100 baseline; in the other 31, car insurance takes a below-average share of household income.

Every state’s burden at a glance

Green states score below the national baseline of 100, so car insurance takes a smaller share of income there. Navy is near the middle, and orange and red mark the states where premiums take an outsized share of household income. Hover any state for its rank; click through for average costs and quotes in that state.

Severe (140+) High (115-139) Moderate (85-114) Low (under 85)

National baseline = 100. Scores frozen as of September 1, 2026. Hover a state for its rank and average premium; click for its car insurance page.

Free to reuse with the citation shown on the image.

Source: MonitorBankRates (MBR) Auto Insurance Burden Index, computed from NAIC 2022 average premiums and Census Bureau median household incomes. Free for editorial use with attribution.

Where car insurance takes the biggest share of income

The ten highest scores cluster along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast. Louisiana and Florida stand alone in the Severe band, and the gap between them is wide: Louisiana’s 165.9 sits 23.8 points above Florida’s 142.1, a bigger gap than the one separating Florida from 8th-ranked Texas.

Liability coverage drives both. Florida’s $1,152 average liability premium is the highest of any state and makes up 68% of its combined figure; nationally, liability accounts for 53%. Louisiana pairs a $991 liability average with the country’s highest combined premium at $1,743. New York, Georgia, Mississippi and Michigan fill out the rest of the top six, each with premiums taking between 1.95% and 2.18% of median household income.

The ten highest-scoring states

#	State	MBR-AIBI	Band	Avg premium	Share of income
1	Louisiana	165.9	Severe	$1,743/yr	2.87%
2	Florida	142.1	Severe	$1,703/yr	2.28%
3	New York	128.4	High	$1,676/yr	1.95%
4	Georgia	123.4	High	$1,513/yr	1.96%
5	Mississippi	123.2	High	$1,232/yr	2.18%
6	Michigan	120.9	High	$1,429/yr	1.96%
7	Rhode Island	119.1	High	$1,574/yr	1.79%
8	Texas	118.9	High	$1,470/yr	1.87%
9	South Carolina	116.3	High	$1,332/yr	1.92%
10	Nevada	115.1	High	$1,421/yr	1.82%

A below-average premium can still strain the budget

Ranking states by premium dollars tells one story. Ranking them by what those dollars mean to the household that pays them tells another. Mississippi is the clearest case: its $1,232 average premium is below the U.S. average, 19th highest in dollar terms, yet the state carries the country’s 5th-highest score because its median household income is the lowest of any state.

The distortion runs the other way in high-income states. The District of Columbia has the 4th-highest premium at $1,629, but median household income there tops $109,000, so it ranks 11th on the index. New Jersey pays the 6th-highest premium and ranks 17th. Massachusetts households pay almost exactly the national average premium and carry the 32nd-ranked burden, well below the baseline.

Same premium, different burden

State	Avg premium	Premium rank	Burden rank	Median income	MBR-AIBI
Mississippi	$1,232/yr	19 of 51	5 of 51	$56,447	123.2
District of Columbia	$1,629/yr	4 of 51	11 of 51	$109,870	108.9
New Jersey	$1,523/yr	6 of 51	17 of 51	$103,556	105.1
Massachusetts	$1,251/yr	17 of 51	32 of 51	$103,960	86.1

Car insurance as a share of median household income: the eight biggest shares and the four smallest

Red bars are shares of 2% or more. Green bars are the four smallest shares. National average: 1.56%.

Where car insurance barely dents the budget

Three of the four lowest scores sit in northern New England. Maine has the lowest average premium in the country at $835 a year, Vermont is close behind at $854, and New Hampshire pairs a $915 premium with a median household income near $99,000 to post the lowest score of all, 64.7. Hawaii takes the other spot in the bottom four: its premium is modest and its median income tops $100,000.

The dollar gap between the extremes is large. A Louisiana household paying the state average spends $908 a year more than a Maine household paying its state average, about $76 a month, and does it on roughly $14,000 less income.

All 50 states and D.C.: score, premium and income share

#	State	MBR-AIBI	Band	Avg premium	Share of income
1	Louisiana	165.9	Severe	$1,743/yr	2.87%
2	Florida	142.1	Severe	$1,703/yr	2.28%
3	New York	128.4	High	$1,676/yr	1.95%
4	Georgia	123.4	High	$1,513/yr	1.96%
5	Mississippi	123.2	High	$1,232/yr	2.18%
6	Michigan	120.9	High	$1,429/yr	1.96%
7	Rhode Island	119.1	High	$1,574/yr	1.79%
8	Texas	118.9	High	$1,470/yr	1.87%
9	South Carolina	116.3	High	$1,332/yr	1.92%
10	Nevada	115.1	High	$1,421/yr	1.82%
11	District of Columbia	108.9	Moderate	$1,629/yr	1.48%
12	Arkansas	107.7	Moderate	$1,132/yr	1.86%
13	Delaware	107.1	Moderate	$1,389/yr	1.64%
14	Oklahoma	106.7	Moderate	$1,172/yr	1.80%
15	West Virginia	105.9	Moderate	$1,099/yr	1.84%
16	New Mexico	105.6	Moderate	$1,149/yr	1.79%
17	New Jersey	105.1	Moderate	$1,523/yr	1.47%
18	Colorado	104.3	Moderate	$1,446/yr	1.51%
19	Alabama	103.7	Moderate	$1,128/yr	1.76%
20	Arizona	102.9	Moderate	$1,287/yr	1.61%
21	Kentucky	99.4	Moderate	$1,078/yr	1.69%
22	Connecticut	98.9	Moderate	$1,374/yr	1.43%
23	Missouri	97.8	Moderate	$1,134/yr	1.60%
24	Maryland	95.7	Moderate	$1,388/yr	1.34%
25	Tennessee	92.4	Moderate	$1,061/yr	1.52%
26	Montana	91.7	Moderate	$1,080/yr	1.49%
27	Pennsylvania	90.9	Moderate	$1,120/yr	1.44%
28	California	88.3	Moderate	$1,250/yr	1.26%
29	Kansas	88.0	Moderate	$1,052/yr	1.42%
30	Wyoming	87.0	Moderate	$1,057/yr	1.39%
31	Nebraska	86.3	Moderate	$1,050/yr	1.37%
32	Massachusetts	86.1	Moderate	$1,251/yr	1.20%
33	Oregon	85.1	Moderate	$1,088/yr	1.31%
34	South Dakota	85.0	Moderate	$1,023/yr	1.36%
35	Alaska	84.7	Low	$1,155/yr	1.24%
36	Illinois	84.2	Low	$1,080/yr	1.30%
37	North Carolina	84.1	Low	$990/yr	1.37%
38	Utah	81.6	Low	$1,129/yr	1.19%
39	Washington	79.9	Low	$1,125/yr	1.15%
40	Minnesota	79.8	Low	$1,063/yr	1.19%
41	Ohio	77.9	Low	$909/yr	1.27%
42	Indiana	77.3	Low	$906/yr	1.26%
43	Virginia	77.1	Low	$1,055/yr	1.13%
44	Iowa	75.0	Low	$902/yr	1.20%
45	Idaho	71.5	Low	$880/yr	1.13%
46	North Dakota	71.4	Low	$871/yr	1.14%
47	Wisconsin	71.4	Low	$876/yr	1.13%
48	Maine	69.6	Low	$835/yr	1.12%
49	Vermont	67.7	Low	$854/yr	1.05%
50	Hawaii	66.8	Low	$952/yr	0.95%
51	New Hampshire	64.7	Low	$915/yr	0.92%

Scores frozen as of September 1, 2026. Click a state for its car insurance guide with average costs and ways to lower your premium.

How to come in under your state’s average

The state average is a starting point, not a sentence. Quotes for the same driver and the same coverage routinely differ by hundreds of dollars a year between carriers, which is a wider range than most of the year-to-year movement in these averages. Comparing three to five quotes for identical coverage is the fastest way to beat your state’s number; state-by-state averages, minimum coverage requirements and quote comparisons are on the car insurance rates page.

About the MonitorBankRates Auto Insurance Burden Index

The MonitorBankRates Auto Insurance Burden Index (MBR-AIBI) is a composite score published by MonitorBankRates. Each state’s score combines two components: its average auto premium as a share of median household income, normalized against the national ratio (60% weight), and its premium level against the U.S. average premium (40% weight). A score of 100 equals the national baseline. Bands: Low under 85, Moderate 85 to 114, High 115 to 139, Severe 140 and above. Premium inputs are the NAIC’s 2022 average premiums for liability, collision and comprehensive coverage; income inputs are Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-Year Estimates.

The index is free for editorial, academic and policy use. Cite it as “MBR Auto Insurance Burden Index, MonitorBankRates.com.” Scores, bands and income shares are available as a CSV download from the live index page; per-state premium dollar figures are NAIC data and are shown with citation rather than redistributed. The numbers in this report are as of September 1, 2026 and will not change; the live page recomputes as its inputs update.

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Sources: National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Auto Insurance Database Report, Average Premium Supplement, 2022 calendar-year data (average premiums for liability, collision and comprehensive coverage by state). U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024, Table B19013 (median household income). Index scores, bands and income shares are MonitorBankRates’ own calculations.

This report is for general information and is not financial or insurance advice. State averages describe typical conditions, not the premium any individual driver will be quoted.