PROVIDENCE – Car insurance rates in Rhode Island are among the most expensive in the country, according to an annual affordability index compiled by a website that compares insurance prices.
InsWeb Corp. determined the affordability of insuring a car by dividing the state’s median household car insurance rate by its median household income. The lower the resulting percentage, the less the median family spends on insurance relative to its income.
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Rhode Island ranked 41st out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., for affordability, with the median household spending 3.98 percent of income on car insurance.
Massachusetts, by contrast, was found to be the most affordable state in the nation, with a score of 1.84 percent, followed closely by No. 2 New Hampshire at 2.23 percent.
The Ocean State had the least affordable car insurance in New England, barely avoiding being one of the nation’s 10 least-affordable states. Least affordable of all was Louisiana, at 6.93 percent, followed by Oklahoma, Missouri, Washington, D.C., and New York.
“Comparing median car insurance rates by state gives us a good sense of where drivers are paying higher and lower premiums, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us where states rank in terms of affordability,” said Brad Cooper, a senior vice president at InsWeb.
“To really get a sense of where car insurance is the most and least affordable, you have to consider how much of a typical family’s income goes towards premiums, and that’s what our affordability factor measures,” he said.
