Auto Rates of Largest Insurers Rose by Double Digits in 2023

Signalling a continued solidification of the personal lines auto insurance marketplace, a new RateWatch report from S&P Global states that all of the top 10 auto insurers in the US rose their premium rates by double digits in 2023.

Rise in Auto Rates by the Top 10 Insurers

The following is data provided by S&P illustrating both the rise in rates by the top 10 insurers, year over year, from 2022 to 2023 as well as the cumulative rise in rates from 2018 through 2023.

InsurerEffective Rate Change
YTD 2023Cumulative Change
2022-YTD 2023Cumulative Change
2018-YTD 2023State Farm16.027.59.6Progressive11.522.822.4GEICO Corp.10.129.141.7Allstate Corp.13.530.035.9USAA16.926.537.4Liberty Mutual16.131.147.1Farmers Insurance17.634.754.8Travelers13.124.431.0American Family Insurance17.526.450.3Nationwide16.827.839.1

Farmers Insurance had the largest rise in rates

According to the report, for the majority of the major insurers, 2023 effective rate increases were higher than their prior-year calculated change.

Standing out among the crowd, however, was Farmers Insurance Group, which saw a substantial raise in rates in 2023. The California-based insurers calculated weighted average rate increase of 17.6% was the highest, while its 2023 raise in rates was approximately 3 percentage points high than the 14.5% effective rate change of 2022.

Overall, Farmers Insurance raised its private auto rates by double digits in 43 states in 2023. The calculated weighted average increase of 30.4% across all of its units in Nebraska was the highest for the company. Among the states reflecting an effective rate change below 10%, North Carolina was the lowest at 1.8%. The other states were New Jersey, Vermont and Colorado at 9.6%, 9.2% and 8.6%, respectively.

On the heels of Farmers Insurance rate increase was American Family which saw rate increases of 17.5% during the first nine months of 2023. As for the New England – based insurers on the list, Liberty Mutual saw a 16.1% rate increase during the same period, while Travelers rates increased by 13.1%.

Back-to back rate increases over the past few years

Turning to auto rate changes by states, data provided by the RateWatch report shows that after a few “muted premium rates changes” during the years 2018-2021, the US has now seen back-to-back years of double digit national average rate increases. As a result, data suggests the calculated nationwide effective change of 14% during the 2023.

Nevada saw the largest effective rate increase of 28.3% in 2023, followed by Minnesota with a 19.8% increase and Washington with a 19.7% increase.

Only Hawaii and North Carolina bucked the trend, with cumulative rate changes at less than 10%.

Rate changes in New England

According to the data, all of the New England states saw a double-digit rise in the auto rates during 2023. Massachusetts has a 12,5% rise in 2023, with a cumulative change from 2022-2023 of 18.4%. The following is a listing of the data for each of the New England states:

StateEffective rate change
YTD 2022-2023Cumulative Change
YTD 2022-2023Cumulative Change
2018-2023Massachusetts12.518.425.0Connecticut16.727.130.1Maine12.428.329.4New Hampshire10.828.124.7Rhode Island11.619.524.7Vermont12.919.615.4