Male vs. female insurance rates: who pays more and why
When it comes to car insurance, F can sometimes mean lower rates than those for M. But not always.
Despite what you may have heard, women don’t always get cheaper rates on car insurance.
We compared rates across insurance companies for a sample driver in New York to get a view on how much gender plays into the premiums you pay.
Our analysis of Quadrant data found that men under the age of 18 pay 17% more for car insurance than women of the same age. However, between ages 31 and 35, women see 5% higher rates than men.
Who pays the most for car insurance: men or women?
The higher premium varies by a driver’s age. But it turns out that over a lifetime of driving, men end up paying about 3% more than women.
The average car insurance rates don’t tell the whole story about how much you might pay based on your gender. For example, median rates for men ages 31 to 35 were only $18 higher than for women, at $1,870 versus $1,898, respectively. And the absolute cheapest rate for men at $601 was only $80 more than the $681 for women.
How we got these rates
We pulled data from Quadrant for 47 car insurance companies and compared hundreds of thousands of car insurance rates using the same driver profile:
All New York ZIP codes
Currently insured
Sedan — 2017 Toyota Camry LE
State minimum coverage
Good credit
Men vs. women: Who gets into more car accidents?
Charging different premiums by gender boils down to statistics, which suggest that men may be more likely to make bad decisions behind the wheel — especially when they’re young.
Men account for almost three-quarters or 73% of all road fatalities, according to 10 years of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Men are also 2.8 times more likely to be behind the wheel during a fatal accident than women.
Using NHTSA data, we dive into car accident statistics for men versus women to discover which types of accidents and factors are most common.
Young men get in the most trouble behind the wheel
Men ages 16 to 25 get in the most car accidents when compared to women or other age groups.
However, the gap between genders widens over time. Drivers in age groups 51 to 55 and 56 to 60 have the widest gender gap for accidents. In these groups, men get into accidents 1.4 times more often than women.
Total car accidents by age and gender, 2010 to 2019
Age group
Male drivers involved in accidents
Female drivers involved in accidents
% difference between genders
16-20
7,220,220
6,078,220
17%
21-25
8,208,164
6,660,681
21%
26-30
6,737,640
5,491,449
20%
31-35
5,935,255
4,694,848
23%
36-40
5,246,820
4,156,538
23%
41-45
5,078,710
3,839,385
28%
46-50
4,995,282
3,690,621
30%
51-55
4,781,165
3,347,679
35%
56-60
5,054,154
3,565,476
35%
61-65
3,102,128
2,206,176
34%
66-70
2,190,289
1,596,253
31%
71-75
1,410,854
1,044,990
30%
76-80
935,366
691,471
30%
How gender plays a role in driving violations
Men see more car accident troubles from driving violations than women.
We analyzed which gender was driving during crashes after specific violations, including drunk driving, speeding and not wearing a seatbelt.
Drunk driving fatalities: Men involved 3.6 times more often than women
Men get in over 103,000 fatal drunk driving accidents,nearly four times the fatal accidents for women. This stat applies to drivers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher.
Seatbelt use: Men thrown from vehicles twice as often as women
Another major safety risk that men take — not using their seatbelt every time they get behind the wheel. Men are thrown from vehicles in an accident nearly 2.1 times more often than women.
That means that men don’t buckle up as much as women, or they’re at least caught in accidents unbuckled the most. We looked at data for both fatal and nonfatal accidents.
Men get in speeding-related crashes 1.5 times more often
Considering both fatal and nonfatal accidents, men get in over 250,000 more speeding-related accidents each year compared to women.
The gender gap rings in at a 38% difference between men and women. In other words, you’ll find a male driver at the wheel during an accident 1.5 times more often than a woman.
The gender gap between different types of collisions
Men are prone to a higher involvement in each type of collision we analyzed. Men get in rear-end collisions more often than women, and they’re three times as likely for that rear-ender to kill someone.
When it comes to nonfatal accidents, men are more often at the wheel during a sideswipe than women.
North Dakota has the widest gender gap in spades with men getting into accidents 4.8 times more often than women.
Then, South Dakota and Washington, D.C. stick close together. In South Dakota, men get into accidents 3.7 times more often than women, and 3.6 times more often in D.C.
We ranked the states based on the difference between the number of fatal car accidents for men versus women, not considering crashes reported as gender unknown. We sourced 10 years of crash data from the NHTSA.
Car accidents by gender and state, 2010 to 2019
Rank
States
Male driver in fatal crash
Female driver in fatal crash
Unknown gender
% of difference between men vs. women
44
Alabama
8,733
3,348
128
89%
48
Alaska
645
254
9
87%
41
Arizona
8,335
3,158
509
90%
19
Arkansas
5,318
1,852
69
97%
13
California
32,978
10,954
1,626
100%
25
Colorado
5,477
1,916
104
96%
13
Connecticut
2,776
923
56
100%
35
Delaware
1,165
431
36
92%
3
District of Columbia
239
66
13
113%
39
Florida
28,015
10,515
1,047
91%
50
Georgia
13,412
5,409
285
85%
8
Hawaii
1,072
339
32
104%
28
Idaho
2,028
734
6
94%
19
Illinois
10,114
3,523
274
97%
11
Indiana
8,574
2,809
170
101%
4
Iowa
3,626
1,080
14
108%
13
Kansas
4,000
1,341
37
100%
35
Kentucky
7,400
2,749
78
92%
28
Louisiana
7,175
2,592
182
94%
39
Maine
1,424
533
3
91%
11
Maryland
5,256
1,726
172
101%
19
Massachusetts
3,461
1,198
40
97%
46
Michigan
9,756
3,797
274
88%
35
Minnesota
3,962
1,457
42
92%
35
Mississippi
5,998
2,214
69
92%
28
Missouri
8,446
3,035
181
94%
27
Montana
1,728
614
9
95%
17
Nebraska
2,235
766
19
98%
32
Nevada
2,955
1,073
80
93%
50
New Hampshire
1,084
437
2
85%
19
New Jersey
5,803
2,022
174
97%
17
New Mexico
3,421
1,165
109
98%
6
New York
10,747
3,343
372
105%
46
North Carolina
13,259
5,181
193
88%
1
North Dakota
1,368
287
4
131%
41
Ohio
11,138
4,205
204
90%
32
Oklahoma
6,673
2,422
120
93%
19
Oregon
3,924
1,366
53
97%
9
Pennsylvania
12,694
4,139
194
102%
44
Rhode Island
563
217
7
89%
32
South Carolina
9,010
3,283
156
93%
2
South Dakota
1,254
343
2
114%
41
Tennessee
10,141
3,842
167
90%
9
Texas
35,567
11,504
1,088
102%
49
Utah
2,506
999
38
86%
19
Vermont
585
204
2
97%
28
Virginia
7,563
2,728
179
94%
25
Washington
5,030
1,770
116
96%
6
West Virginia
3,010
934
25
105%
16
Wisconsin
5,871
1,972
64
99%
5
Wyoming
1,232
375
3
107%
Accident for men vs. women by time of day
Both genders get in more car accidents during the day compared to night. However, men get in nighttime crashes 1.5 times more often than women.
Men are at the wheel during 1.8 million nighttime crashes per year, compared to 1.1 million for women.
Total car accidents by gender and time of day, 2010 to 2019
Time of day
Male drivers
Female drivers
% difference between genders
Morning
43,446,799
35,950,737
21%
Night
17,802,947
11,411,924
56%
Reported as unknown
1,779
436
–
Accident rate for men vs. women by day of week
Friday is the most troublesome day for car accidents across both genders.
However, the gender gap between the number of car accidents widens on Saturday and Sunday. Men get in car accidents about 1.5 times more often on those days than women.
Total car accidents by gender and day of week, 2010 to 2019
Day of week
Male drivers
Female drivers
% difference between genders
Sunday
6,129,221
4,067,773
51%
Monday
8,857,643
7,075,730
25%
Tuesday
9,343,303
7,565,058
24%
Wednesday
9,215,642
7,587,686
21%
Thursday
9,396,815
7,583,144
24%
Friday
10,537,623
8,195,727
29%
Saturday
7,771,280
5,287,982
47%
What if my ID doesn’t match my gender identity?
How your insurance company evaluates your gender largely depends on how you’re represented on your ID. The majority of states don’t make it easy to change the gender on your ID, which may mean getting lumped in with the gender you were assigned at birth.
You might be able to speak directly to your insurer about more affordable rates while you work through the process of changing your gender marker on your driver’s license. But there’s no guarantee you’ll get a rate break.
Changing gender markers on forms of ID
All US states allow you to change your gender on your driver’s license, though the formal process — and frustration — varies by state. As of February 2022, 15 states and Washington DC allow gender marker changes simply by self attesting. All other states require either medical documentation, a court order or an updated passport or birth certificate.
Contact the National Center for Transgender Equality for your state’s policies or to learn more from an attorney who specializes in changes to government-issued ID.
How do nonbinary gender markers affect car insurance rates?
Sixteen states and Washington DC allow X gender markers as of this writing. Because the option is fairly new, data on how it affects car insurance rates is fairly limited.
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services issued a notice in 2018 to insurers that use gender when determining premiums that they must accommodate drivers who select the X gender marker. It’s yet to be seen how other states that allow factoring gender into rates will handle the change.
Bottom line
Ultimately, paying too much for car insurance is more complicated than factoring in your age or your gender. Insurance companies use a variety of factors to set car insurance premiums, and not every company weighs each factor the same.
To find the cheapest rates and most comprehensive coverage you’re eligible for, compare several quotes from both big and small companies.
We pulled data from Quadrant for 47 car insurance companies and compared hundreds of thousands of car insurance rates using the same driver profile.
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Sarah George is a personal finance writer at Finder who’s spent the last four years wielding her digital pen on all things banking and insurance. Her know-how has been featured in such publications as CBS, CNET and Reviews.com, and she was a panelist in Finder’s 2020 money-saving webinar. Sarah earned an English education degree and is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance.
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