Ohio families’ insurance costs double when they add a teen driver, increasing by just over 100 percent. The average national increase is 79 percent.
While the premium increase for teen drivers in Ohio is among the highest in the country, Ohio holds the 12th-lowest average premium in the nation.
The average premium in Ohio costs $659, while the national average is $841.
Ohio charges the lowest average premium rate when compared to neighboring states Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan, according to a recent study done by Value Penguin, a personal finance research site.
This means that while insurance rates for Ohio families with teen drivers might spike more than for those in other states, families in the Buckeye State also pay less for the average premium.
“A 100 percent increase in Ohio may sound extreme,” said Mary Bonelli, senior vice president of public information for the Ohio Insurance Institute. “But given the fact that Ohioans continue to have some of the lowest auto insurance premiums in the U.S., the actual dollar amount is not as bad as you might expect.”
“We caution consumers to view these studies as a general guide and not an absolute. They should not be used as the sole basis for comparing what you can expect as far as premium adjustments.”
There are a variety of factors that determine a person’s auto insurance costs, including accident history, driving records and types of cars being driven. Many insurance providers also offer incentives for teen drivers, such as good grades and safe driving, to try to lower premium costs.
The average national cost of adding a teenage driver has gone down from an 84 percent premium increase in 2014 to 79 percent this year, according to the Quadrant study. And as insurance rates have decreased, so has the number of teen driving deaths over the past 30 years. In 1978, there were nearly 10,000 teen driving deaths, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In 2014, there were approximately 2,600 deaths.
This staggering decrease could be prompted by the fact that the number of teen drivers has significantly dropped off in the same time period. Thirty years ago, 69 percent of 17-year old Americans had a driver’s license; according to a study from the University of Michigan, just 45 percent of today’s 17-year olds have one.
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