Freedom Comes at a Price: It Now Costs Nearly $8K a Year To Insure a New Teen Driver

What Teen Drivers Really Pay for Car Insurance in 2025

The average sixteen-year-old costs $7,658 to insure in 2025. That amount goes down substantially each year of age (and year of experience in driving).

Here you can see the average annual and monthly premium costs for each year of teen driving. This is one reason it can make a lot of sense to shop around frequently for auto insurance, especially when you have a young driver on your policy.

From a risk assessment perspective, teen drivers paying more makes perfect sense. As inexperienced drivers, they are more likely to:

• Misjudge road conditions. Teens are more likely to speed and to underestimate stopping distances.^[2]
• Be distracted while driving. Young adult and teen drivers are more at risk for distracted driving than other age groups.^[3]
• Experience crashes. Crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure. For example, studies show that the crash rate per mile driven is about 1.5 times as high for 16-year-old drivers compared to 18-19-year-old drivers.^[4]

Obviously not all teens are bad drivers; however, they do all share two things in common 1) a lack of experience, and 2) a very short driving history. As teens age, if they maintain a clean driving record, they can gradually see these costs reduce. 

Gender Differences in Teen Car Insurance Prices

Teen boys pay even more than teens in general for auto insurance. Insurance companies rely on large-scale data to set premiums, and the numbers consistently show that teenage boys are more likely to engage in risky driving behaviors than their female counterparts. Male teens are:

• More likely to speed

• More likely to drive aggressively

• Less likely to wear seatbelts

• More likely to drive under the influence^[4]

These behaviors result in higher accident rates and more severe crashes among teen boys, which translates to higher costs for insurers.

We see gender differences in older drivers as well; however, the difference is usually only a 2-3% difference between men and women. For teens, the difference between young men and women is more stark, with an average of around 9% at age 16. However, by 19, the difference is already closer to the amount for adults, around 2.5%. 

Where Teens Live Has The Biggest Impact on What They Pay

While gender has an impact on what teens pay for auto insurance, it pales in comparison to the impact of  where they live. 

The most expensive place to be a brand-new teen driver in 2025 is Louisiana. Sixteen-year-olds here pay an average of $6,622 for a 6-month policy. That's more than $13,000 a year! The average for teens in the state is around $10,559 a year. There is one state that tops Louisiana for the highest average cost for teens, and that's New Hampshire. Florida is a close third. In all three states, teen drivers cost over $10,000 a year. Florida and Louisiana make sense as prices for adults in these states are also some of the highest in the country. However, New Hampshire is something of a surprise as their average car insurance prices are on the lower end overall. 

On the other end of the spectrum, North Carolina teens pay an average of $3,692 each year for auto insurance, making it the cheapest place for teens to buy auto insurance of states where age is considered as a rating factor. North Carolina also has the distinction of seeing the biggest drop in insurance rates as teens age. By aging from 16 to 19, teens can see their insurance rates drop by 57% on average. 

California, Hawaii and Massachusetts are the three states where insurance companies are not allowed to consider age when determining rates. In these states, teens are not penalized for their age and inexperience, and will likely pay closer to what adults who live in the same area and have similar driving histories pay. 

Find out what teens pay for auto insurance at each age in your state: 

How Can Teens Save on Insurance?

If you are the parent of a newly licensed teen and are concerned by astronomical rates for young drivers, rest assured, there are some ways to find savings.

Methodology

This report analyzes over 32 million car insurance rates to examine how dozens of trends and risk factors affect teen insurance pricing nationwide.

The auto insurance rates displayed throughout this page come from The Zebra’s Dynamic Insurance Rating Tool. This proprietary insurance premium estimator uses the most recent rate filings across the United States at the ZIP code level to provide the most recent and up-to-date rate data. This data comes from Quadrant Information Services, which sources the most recent and approved rate filings across insurance companies in every state from S&P Global.

Rates are based on sample driver profiles for 16, 17, 18, and 19-year-old male and female drivers — on the policy of a 50-year-old male with a Honda Accord and full coverage at these levels:

• $50,000 per person/$100,000 per incident for bodily injury liability
• $50,000 per incident for property damage liability
• $500 deductibles for collision and comprehensive coverage