Looking at insurance premium data reveals a lot.

 

If a location is seeing an increase in insurance premium volume, it could be a sign of economic development, as new homeowners and businesses require policies. It could also be an indication of underlying issues. For example, a place prone to flooding, like Louisiana, may see more expensive premiums. Another example would be Georgia, where the most accident-prone highways have led to a spike in auto insurance costs.

 

That’s why we’ve decided to analyze state-by-state insurance premium data sourced from the Insurance Information Institute (III) to tell you which states and their residents have seen the biggest increases in insurance premium costs over the last decade.

 

The methodology

Getting started with the methodology will help clarify the data you’re about to see.

 

All data derives from the Insurance Information Institute, which pulled its data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Breeze analyzed insurance premium data from 2010, 2019 and 2020 to find both year-over-year and decade-long trends.

 

The tables below referring to direct premiums written represent premium amounts before reinsurance transactions. It also only represents property and casualty insurance (P&C) and does not include life/annuity or health insurance. For example, insurance products like voluntary life insurance are not included in the data analysis.

 

The P&C data includes both personal lines, like auto or homeowners coverage for individuals, and commercial lines, like products designed for businesses. For example, insurance for small business owners, like workers comp or professional liability insurance, is included in the analysis.

 

All data was normalized by taking each state’s population into account. This meant taking a state’s annual premium or premium tax data from a given year and dividing it by the same state’s total population from that same year to develop both a premium per capita and a premium tax per capita figure. This puts all states on a level playing field, rather than favoring larger states with bigger economies like California, New York, and Texas.

 

For example, New Jersey’s insurance premium data in 2010 was divided by its population in 2010, while its 2020 insurance premium data was divided by its population projection in 2019 as 2020 figures are not yet published. 2019 population figures were used for both 2019 and 2020. Population numbers were pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

To find year-over-year or decade trends, a percent increase calculation was conducted to find changes in either the premium per capita or premium tax per capita figure.

 

If you’d like to see an Excel file of the data or have any questions, please email me at [email protected].

 

From 2010 to 2020, insurance premiums have risen the most in these states

Let’s take a look at which states have seen the biggest increases in insurance premiums per capita over the last decade. The data here refers to direct P&C insurance premiums written (before reinsurance) in a given year in a given state. Each state’s population for the corresponding year was accounted for to give a per capita figure.

 

We ranked states according to the biggest decade-long increases. Here are the 15 states that saw the highest increase in premiums over the last decade:

15. Arizona

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 46.39%

14. Tennessee

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 46.52%

13. Arkansas

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 47.19%

12. Michigan

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 49.03%

11. Nebraska

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 49.48%

10. Montana

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 49.74%

9. California

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 50.17%

8. Nevada

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 50.54%

7. Alabama

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 50.59%

6. Texas

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 50.86%

5. South Carolina

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 53.39%

4. Utah

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 53.39%

3. Colorado

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 64.51%

2. Idaho

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 65.84%

1. Georgia

• Decade Change in Premium per Capita: 66.48%

Several key findings included:

• Georgia: The Peach State had the biggest decade-long percent increase in terms of premium per capita. Georgia has some of the most accident-prone highways. Couple that with the state’s growing population and economy, and you have a recipe for a lot of car accidents and thus higher insurance rates.
• Correlation to population booms: Many of the states with the biggest population increases over the last decade (Georgia, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, etc.) also had some of the biggest increases in insurance premiums per capita. The more people, the more of a need for insurance.
• The national average: If you ranked it with the states, the U.S. as a whole would rank 18th for the biggest decade-long increase in insurance premium per capita at 44.08%. The majority of states had a smaller increase than this over the last 10 years.
• Year-over-year: Shifting focus to YoY trends, West Virginia saw a significant 5.45% decrease in insurance premium per capita, which was far and away the largest decrease. Conversely, Idaho led the way with a 6.40% increase in insurance premium per capita from 2019 to 2020.

Looking for more insurance data? Check it out here!

 

Related:

• More employers are offering pet insurance benefits
• Supplemental insurance: What it is & how to know if you need it

This article
originally appeared on MeetBreeze.com and was
syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

 

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