Introducing The Zebra Premium Pressure Index (ZPPI)

The True Measure of Affordability

At The Zebra, studying trends in insurance data is our speciality. Our annual State of Insurance | Auto Report™ uses historic insurance data to predict what the average consumer will pay for insurance in the coming year.

However, as we know, the dollar amount people pay each month for insurance is only a part of the story. 

For example, the cities with the highest insurance rates in our 2026 report are almost exclusively in the New York City area. As a high-cost-of-living city, we know salaries are higher and homes are more expensive there, so in some ways a higher insurance cost may be less of a stress on consumers’ budgets.

ZPPI, or The Zebra Premium Price Index, takes these factors into account and presents average auto insurance costs as a percent of income.

What Does ZPPI Show?

Data from The Zebra Premium Price Index is ideal for providing insights into auto insurance affordability at a national and state level. 

The Zebra Premium Price Index is optimized to achieve three main objectives:

How ZPPI Works

Each quarter, we compare data on average car insurance rates and individual median income. 

The auto insurance rates come from The Zebra’s Dynamic Insurance Rating Tool. DIRT is a tool for getting carrier rates for a provided driver profile for all ZIP codes in the United States to provide the most up-to-date rate data at the ZIP code level. 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 a sample driver profile — a 30-year-old single male driver 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

The data is compared to median individual income data from the Federal Reserve Bank and US Bureau of Economic Analysis.^[1]

We may add additional data points and tweak our methodology over time, so check back for updates.

Where Can I Find ZPPI Data?

State and national data can be found in the 2026 State of Insurance | Auto Report™ and in our Data Desk.

Using ZPPI Data

The Zebra is the nation's leading independent insurance comparison site and has sought to bring transparency and simplicity to the insurance process. We encourage you to explore, share, and reference these research findings, with attribution to "The Zebra" or "TheZebra.com" and link to this page.