Log in Join

Car insurance price index

A comprehensive analysis of car insurance pricing in the UK.

Avatar
Avatar

By

Danny Butler

&

Kemi Elizabeth Ojogbede

Updated

Fact checked

Overview

The average Brit pays £628 per year for their car insurance, but how do these figures differ by vehicle colour, age, gender and region? We’ve crunched the numbers to give you some interesting (and interactive) insights into car insurance prices in the UK.

Quick stats

  • Those with a red car are more likely to pay higher for their insurance on average (£690), while those with a grey car are more likely to pay the lowest (£613).
  • The highest-risk driving demographic is considered to be 20-year-olds. Men within this age category would pay £2,004 on average while women would pay £1,973 on average: 1.5% less.
  • In every other age category, women are charged an average of 6.7% more than men for their car insurance.
  • London is the most expensive region to buy car insurance, at £727. This is 45% higher than the lowest price of £501 in Northern Ireland.
Find out how much you could pay for your car insurance

Hover over each car colour to see how much you could be charged

£690

£686

£655

£652

£648

£646

Car insurance price by car colour

Those with a red car are more likely to pay 10% higher than the national average for their insurance.

A surprising finding from our analysis revealed that the amount you pay for your car insurance varies depending on colour. The reason for this lies in the cost of some paints, especially metallic shades, which can can be expensive for insurers to repair if damaged or scratched.

These colours can also play a significant factor in determining the value of your car, hence the reason why some colours and shades may hike up your car insurance premiums much more than you’d expect.

Those with a red car can expect to pay the highest car insurance premiums on average at £690. This is followed closely by brown cars, which come in at £686. The third most expensive car colour to have is yellow, which could have you paying £655. This is followed by white, at £652, orange (£648) and then green (£646).

Those with a grey car could be paying 2% less than the national average, making this colour the cheapest to own.

Kicking off the list of cheapest colours is purple, which would have drivers paying £642. This is closely followed by one of the more common colours – black – which would set Brits back just £631 per year.

Blue takes us to the lower end of car insurance costs, as drivers would only have to pay £625 per year. Those with a beige car would also pay £625, while those with silver cars would be down just £622. Coming in as the cheapest colour to own, grey cars cost just £613 per year on average.

Research also shows that 1 in every 5 cars in the UK is black, indicating that 20% of Brits could be paying an average of £631 per year, a slight increase from the national average of £628.

The second most common car colour in the UK is silver, accounting for 18% of Brits’ preferences. This is followed by blue (17%), grey and white (15%), with red (11%) taking sixth place as the most popular car colour in the country.

£642

£631

£625

£625

£622

£613

Find the right car insurance for you

Our super-quick quiz takes less than 1 minute. Answer 3 easy questions to narrow down your shortlist.

Car insurance price by gender and age

From their 30s onwards, women pay 6.7% more than men for their car insurance.

Our analysis also revealed there to be some stark differences in car insurance costs by gender.

When analysing the data by age, we found that the highest-risk driving demographic is considered to be 20-year-olds. Men within this age category pay £2,004 on average while women pay £1,973 – 1.5% less. However, as ages increase, we see the prices shift in favour of men. The data shows that from their 30s onwards, women are charged an average of 6.7% more than men for their car insurance. If we drill down into these figures by specific ages, it’s clear to see that as women get older, they are charged more than men overall.

In their 30s, men pay an average of £884 per year for their car insurance, while women pay £949 – 7.4% more. In their 40s, men pay £704 and women pay £46 higher than this figure. The gap closes closes slightly in their 50s, as men are charged £621 while women pay £633 (a 1.9% difference). This gap closes to its slimmest in the 60s, as the difference between men’s and women’s car insurance payments lowers to just a 0.8%. However, the gap begins to widen as we head into the 70s, with a 10.8% difference between payments showing that men pay £62 less than women (£662). In the 80s, the difference between the amounts men and women are charged stands at 5.5% on average, in their 90s this hikes up to a whopping 14.4%, as men are charged just £3,664, while women have to pay £4,191 per year on average.

Age Male Female % difference
20s £2,004 £1,973 -1.5%
30s £884 £949 7.4%
40s £704 £750 6.5%
50s £621 £633 1.9%
60s £720 £726 0.8%
70s £600 £662 10.3%
80s £978 £1,032 5.5%
90s £3,664 £4,191 14.4%
Got a question? We are here to help!

If you have a press query or would like to read more in detail about this research, feel free to reach out to us.

Car insurance price by region

London is the most expensive region for car insurance, with prices coming up to 116% of the national average

  • Londoners are having to pay £727 per year for their car insurance, making the capital the most expensive part of the UK to buy car insurance.
  • On the other end of the spectrum is Northern Ireland, where the average car insurance price is £501.
  • The second cheapest region to buy car insurance is South West England (£531), followed by Scotland (£561).
  • Buying car insurance in South West England, Wales, The Midlands, East or North England would mean having to part with over £600.
  • Up in the higher end, those in Yorkshire and the Humber are paying £717 on average for their car insurance, making it the second most expensive region in our list.

This means that those in London are paying the highest, with costs coming up to 116% of the national average. It also means that those in Northern Ireland are enjoying the cheapest car insurance premiums in the whole country, with just over £500 being forked over for their premiums each year.

Danny Butler, car insurance specialist, gives advice on how to pay the lowest prices on your vehicle:

"Surprisingly, the colour of your car can also impact the cost of your insurance, with the more popular colours such as grey or silver generating the cheapest insurance quotes as opposed to less popular ones such as green or red. One of the reasons behind this is that some of the least popular colours are often harder to source and would cost more to repair at a garage if the vehicle was damaged.

As a starting point, I'd be looking for a vehicle in a low insurance group in a popular colour version with no modifications. For additional savings, I'd look at increasing the excess slightly (if this is an option for you) to lessen the risk for the insurance company and decrease your premiums. Lastly, make sure that you shop around and compare several quotes from a range of different providers and look at different policy dates. The price changes are often substantial and a slight change in policy date could make a big difference to your bottom line."

Methodology

We analysed 13,500 quotes from Quotezone and looked at car insurance prices for 17- 90-year-olds across 3 different postcodes (cheap, average and expensive locations) and all 50 insurance groups. In order to keep our data consistent, the quotes we retrieved included had the same variables.

To find out how much colour impacted car insurance costs, finder.com analysed over 100 quotes. We looked at the 10 most popular car colours in the UK and worked out the average premiums for a similar spec vehicle (with colour being the only variable that changes).

  • Quotes were pulled within the last 3 months
  • The driver is a resident of the UK and is the owner and registered keeper of the vehicle with a full UK licence
  • The driver has no claims, no convictions and has never had insurance declined or cancelled or special terms imposed
  • There are no additional drivers
  • The car to be insured has not been modified or imported (grey imported)
  • Recent quotes used for the purposes of the estimate include third party, third party, fire and theft and comprehensive cover

Sources

For all media enquiries, please contact

Matt Mckenna
UK communications manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
matt.mckenna@finder.com@MichHutchison/in/matthewmckenna2

Related articles

More guides on Finder

Go to site