Why comprehensive coverage costs so much more in some places

Comprehensive coverage costs more where claims are more frequent, more expensive, or both. The NAIC's 2023 averages put the price of comprehensive at $117.23 a year in Hawaii and $472.78 in South Dakota, a gap of about four to one, for a coverage that averaged only $238.24 nationally. The causes are local: theft, hail and flood, deer and other animals, and cracked glass, each weighted by where you park and how your state treats windshield claims.

This article breaks the price into parts, shows which places sit at each end and why the numbers behave the way they do, and lists what a driver can actually change.

A small slice of the premium, with a wide spread

comprehensive coverage pays for damage to your car that does not come from a collision: theft, vandalism, fire, flood, hail, falling objects, animal strikes and glass breakage, subject to the policy's terms and your deductible. It is optional unless a lender requires it.

The NAIC's 2022/2023 Auto Insurance Database Report (adopted December 2025) puts the 2023 national combined average premium for liability, collision and comprehensive at $1,438.60, of which comprehensive was $238.24, or about 16.6%. Triple-I notes that the NAIC figures do not account for policyholder classifications, vehicle characteristics or deductibles, so these are averages across a mix of policies, not what any one driver pays.

Price is frequency times severity

Insurers price comprehensive from two measurements: how often claims occur and how large they are. The NAIC report defines claim frequency as claims per 100 earned car-years and severity as the average loss per claim, and the loss cost per car-year is the product. The table shows 2022 figures (the latest in that report) next to each state's 2023 average premium. Premiums here are written premiums for a later year, so the match is approximate, and the report shows Texas as not available for these loss measures.

Read it as two stories. Arizona has the highest claim frequency in the table but one of the smallest average claims. A book dominated by many small claims looks like that, and glass repair is a typical small claim, though the NAIC table does not break losses out by cause. South Dakota and Nebraska show the opposite: fewer claims, but each averaging more than $3,400. Large average claims are what you would expect where hail destroys panels on dozens of cars at once, though again the table does not label the cause.

The NAIC's own loss cost measure (pure premium, losses per car-year) shows the same gap. In 2022 it was $341.87 in South Dakota, $329.69 in Nebraska and $60.80 in Hawaii, against $170.69 nationally. Single years also swing. Nebraska's pure premium was $136.96 in 2021 and $329.69 in 2022.

Theft and vandalism

The NAIC database observes that vehicle theft rates play a role in the cost of comprehensive coverage. Its 2022 theft table, based on FBI and Federal Highway Administration data, shows a national rate of 3.47 thefts per 1,000 registered vehicles. The District of Columbia was at 10.34, Colorado at 9.36, Washington at 6.56, New Mexico at 6.29 and California at 6.14. At the other end were New Hampshire (0.70), Maine (0.80) and Idaho (0.91).

Theft is not the whole story, and the table shows why. Hawaii's rate (4.89) is above the national figure, yet it has the lowest comprehensive premium in the NAIC data. Wyoming's rate (1.09) is among the nation's lowest, yet its comprehensive premium is the second highest. Other perils evidently dominate in each case.

Two recent data points show how fast theft shifts:

• Overall theft fell sharply. The National Insurance Crime Bureau reported in a March 2026 release that 659,880 vehicles were stolen in 2025, down 23% from 2024 and the lowest level in several decades. California accounted for 136,988 of them, more than 20% of the national total, and Texas for 75,269. Because insurers price on multi-year data, one low year does not lower rates at once.
• A single part can distort one vehicle's price. The Highway Loss Data Institute's April 2021 bulletin on Toyota Prius theft found theft claim frequency for 2004-09 Prius models rose from 1.4 claims per 1,000 insured vehicle years in 2016 to 58.1 in 2020 because of catalytic converter thefts, while average claim size stayed near $2,400. California's frequency was 157.0 per 1,000, and its overall theft loss was $419 per insured vehicle year in 2020, against $32 for the Connecticut-New Jersey-New York region and $20 for the District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia region.

Industry-wide, the same pattern appeared. Insurance Journal reported in May 2023 that NICB counted catalytic converter theft claims rising 288%, from 16,660 in 2020 to 64,701 in 2022. See vandalism, parts theft and break-in damage: comprehensive claims for how these claims are handled.

Vehicle choice also matters. Verisk, which publishes the ISO rating symbols many insurers use, explains that when a vehicle's symbol is adjusted for loss experience, one reason is that some vehicles are more attractive to thieves than others. See vehicle symbol for the concept.

Hail, flood and other weather

Weather is the hardest comprehensive peril to price because it arrives in bursts. The Casualty Actuarial Society's text Basic Ratemaking (fifth edition, 2016) says the most common catastrophic loss for private passenger auto comprehensive is hail. It explains that catastrophe losses are typically removed from the data used to set rates and replaced with an average expected catastrophe amount based on a long period, such as 10 to 30 years, since a short window makes indicated rates jump after a bad storm year and fall after a quiet one.

That is why the effect of hail shows up in long-run averages for a hail-prone region rather than as an immediate jump after one season. Triple-I reported in April 2026 that severe convective storms (tornadoes, hail and thunderstorms) caused about $51 billion in U.S. insured losses in 2025, the third straight year above $50 billion, with hail responsible for as much as 80% of such claims in a typical year. Those figures cover all property, not cars alone.

The NAIC loss ratios show how violent single years can be. Comprehensive losses as a share of earned premium were 173.83% in Florida in 2022 against 73.03% in 2021, and 107.60% in California in 2022 against 94.32% in 2021. The NAIC table does not list causes, so I cannot attribute those swings to any one event. Nationally, the comprehensive loss ratio was 70.73% in 2020, 82.52% in 2021 and 92.45% in 2022. See hail, floods and hurricanes: how weather shows up in car premiums for how catastrophe loading works.

Flood is covered under comprehensive as well, while the ISO claim frequency figures Triple-I publishes on its auto insurance facts page for comprehensive (3.95 claims per 100 car-years in 2024, with an average of $2,306 per claim) explicitly exclude wind and water losses and include glass. That distinction is why different sources report different "comprehensive" frequencies.

Animals

Animal strikes are claimed under comprehensive, and they are concentrated geographically. State Farm's annual analysis for July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 estimated 1.7 million animal collision claims nationally, with more than 1.1 million involving deer, and put the chance of an animal claim at 1 in 40 in West Virginia, 1 in 53 in Montana and 1 in 58 in Wisconsin, against a national 1 in 139. Its newsroom release said October, November and December account for about 41% of the claims. A later State Farm analysis for July 2025 to June 2026, reported in September 2026, found more than 1.6 million claims, West Virginia at 1 in 46 and Montana at 1 in 54, with a national figure of 1 in 145. Pennsylvania had the highest count, about 141,000 estimated claims. State Farm's figures are estimates drawn from its own claims. See hitting a deer or other animal: comprehensive or collision? for the claim process.

Glass: where state law changes the price

Glass claims are frequent, cheap to start with, and increasingly costly because windshields now carry cameras and sensors that must be recalibrated after replacement; see ADAS calibration. Several states regulate how the deductible applies.

Progressive's consumer page on windshield replacement lists Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina as the three states where insurers cannot apply a deductible to a covered windshield claim, and says a few other states let you buy glass coverage with a low or no deductible as an option. The statute text is at the Florida Legislature and the South Carolina Legislature.

It would be easy to assume these laws make comprehensive expensive. The NAIC's 2023 averages do not support that: Florida was $230.32, Kentucky $218.00 and South Carolina $250.82, against $238.24 nationally. A mandatory zero deductible raises the cost of each glass claim to the insurer, but other factors in those states offset it. Where a state has no such rule, the optional full glass coverage endorsement is how a driver buys the same protection. Rules differ by state; confirm yours with your state insurance department or the state car insurance requirements lookup tool. See Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky for state profiles.

How insurers draw comprehensive territories

Location is priced through rating territories. The CAS text says companies typically define territories as collections of small geographic units such as postal codes, counties or census blocks, with a rate relativity for each, and that territorial boundaries and relativities can vary significantly from insurer to insurer. That is why two insurers can charge differently for the same address, and why a ZIP-code move matters; see territory rating.

California offers a documented example. Its regulation 10 CCR 2632.5 allows optional factors for relative claims frequency and severity based on where the vehicle is garaged, with at most 20 categories each, formed by grouping ZIP codes or census tracts with similar average claims. South Carolina's statute on physical damage rates bars using, among other things, race, creed, income and "location of residence in this State" when setting those premiums, but expressly permits a territorial plan approved by the state's insurance director. Both approaches reflect the same reality: neighbors do not always share the same risk, but the lines must be justified.

What a driver can control

Most of comprehensive's price is outside your control, but some of it is not.

1. Pick the deductible with local frequency in mind. The countrywide ISO comprehensive frequency of 3.95 claims per 100 car-years in 2024 implies roughly one claim per 25 years for an average car; at Colorado's 11.33 (NAIC, 2022) it implies one per nine. The higher the frequency near you, the more a high deductible matters.
2. Compare deductible options in dollars. Take hypothetical quotes: $264 a year with a $250 deductible, $238 with $500, $201 with $1,000. Moving from $500 to $1,000 saves $37 a year but puts $500 more at risk per claim. The break-even is $500 / $37, about 13.5 claim-free years. Use the deductible break-even calculator.
3. Check the glass terms. In states without a glass rule, ask whether a full-glass endorsement exists and what it costs relative to your glass-claim risk.
4. Park deliberately. A garage or secure lot reduces theft, hail and vandalism exposure, and some insurers give an anti-theft device discount for qualifying devices.
5. Pick the car with theft and repair history in mind. The ISO symbol assigned to a model reflects its price and the loss experience of its series.
6. Reconsider comprehensive on an old car. If the car's value is low relative to the premium and deductible, the coverage may cost more than it returns; a lender may still require it.
7. Keep your garaging address current. Territory is part of rating, and a wrong address misstates risk in either direction.

Common questions

Why is my comprehensive premium so different from a friend's in another state?

Because the underlying claims differ. The NAIC's 2022 loss cost per car-year ranged from $60.80 in Hawaii to $341.87 in South Dakota. Territory, vehicle, deductible and the insurer's own experience also differ.

Does a hailstorm in my area raise my rate next month?

Rarely that fast. Insurers typically replace actual catastrophe losses with a long-run average in the data behind a filing, according to the CAS text, and rate changes go through filing and approval; see hail, floods and hurricanes: how weather shows up in car premiums. A very bad storm can still push a company to seek more.

Does hitting a deer raise my rate?

Animal collisions are generally treated as comprehensive claims, not collisions with another vehicle. Whether a claim affects your renewal depends on the insurer and the state, so ask before you file if you are unsure.

Are zero-deductible glass states the cheapest places for comprehensive?

No. Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina sit close to the national average, and states with high hail and animal exposure sit far above it.

Key takeaways

• NAIC data put the 2023 average comprehensive premium at $238.24 nationally, from $117.23 in Hawaii to $472.78 in South Dakota.
• Price equals how often claims occur times how large they are; Arizona is high frequency with small claims, South Dakota and Nebraska the reverse.
• Theft, hail, animals and glass each drive cost in different places, and no single peril explains a state; theft rates in Hawaii and Wyoming show why.
• State glass laws (Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina) remove the deductible for covered windshield claims but do not make those states unusually expensive.
• Your levers are the deductible, glass options, where you park and which car you choose.