Full-coverage car insurance is projected to average $2,242 a year nationally by the end of 2026, a 1% increase over 2025, but that modest headline number hides double-digit jumps in specific states, according to Insurify’s latest report. The insurance marketplace projects rate increases in 32 states by year’s end, a finding corroborated in Fox Business’s reporting on the same data set.

Key Points

• Connecticut leads the country with a projected 15% increase, adding roughly $352 to the average annual premium.
• Kentucky and West Virginia both project 8% increases, worth $180 and $139 respectively.
• Illinois is projected at 6% ($104 added), and Nevada at 6% ($167 added).
• Rising repair costs and claims severity are the two factors Insurify cites most consistently across states.

The repair-cost problem is national, not regional. Insurify’s data shows auto maintenance and repair costs have climbed 45% over the past five years — double the overall rate of inflation. That’s before factoring in claims: bodily injury claims, the most expensive category for insurers to pay out, rose 36% nationally between 2020 and 2024, while collision claims climbed 42% over the same stretch. Every state’s premium math starts from those two baseline pressures before local factors get added on top.

Connecticut’s spike traces to claim severity rather than claim frequency. The state’s average collision claim now runs about $7,285, among the highest in the country, which pushes insurers to raise premiums across the board rather than isolate the increase to high-risk drivers. Kentucky’s story is different: the state has seen hail-related weather damage claims nearly double, climbing from 76 to 178 annual events according to Insurify’s data, a shift that reads more like a changing weather pattern than a driving-behavior problem.

Gas prices factor into the equation too, if indirectly. Insurify’s report notes that gas prices have climbed from roughly $3 to $4 a gallon, a change that shows up in insurance math because higher fuel costs are frequently correlated with reduced driving frequency in some models, while in others they simply reflect the same broader cost inflation squeezing repair parts, labor rates, and replacement vehicle costs — all inputs insurers factor into premium pricing.

None of this is unique to 2026 in isolation — auto insurance premiums have been on a multi-year upward run as post-pandemic supply chain costs for parts and labor never fully receded. What’s notable in Insurify’s numbers is how uneven the pain is. A driver in Connecticut is looking at nearly triple the percentage increase facing a driver in Illinois or Nevada, even though all three states share the same national backdrop of rising repair costs and claims severity.

For drivers in the 32 states on Insurify’s list, the practical move is the one people already know and tend to skip: shop your policy before renewal rather than after the increase lands. Insurers price risk differently based on their own claims exposure in a given state, so a company getting hit hard by Connecticut collision claims may not be pricing Kentucky hail risk the same way a competitor is — and that spread is where a comparison shop actually saves money.