Who pays more for car insurance?

Who pays more for their car insurance, a 16 year old with no driving experience or an 80 year old with a life time of driving experience?  In a very informal and completely unscientific poll I conducted on my personal and agency Facebook pages as well as our Twitter followers, the vote was 2 to 1 that the 16 year old would pay more for car insurance than the 80 year old.

Here are some interesting informational items;

• More older drivers are on the road now than ever before
• About 34 million drivers are 65 and older today in the U.S.
• By 2030 this should jump to 57 million or 1/4^th of all drivers
• Boomers expect to hold on to their licenses longer & drive more miles than previous generations
• Older drivers don’t crash as often as younger drivers, but they also drive less
• About 60% of seniors voluntarily cut back on their driving
  • They avoid driving at night
  • They stay off the interstate
  • They don’t drive in bad weather

While there’s not a real clear cut answer on who pays more, there are some official indicators that are worth noting;

• 16 to 19 year old drivers have between 4.5 and 5.0 fatalities per 100 million miles traveled
• This incidence of traffic fatalities declines in the 20’s to middle 30’s
• The lowest fatality rates are from age 35 to 59
• From age 80 to 84 the fatality rate is 4.2 deaths per million miles traveled, slightly less than the 16 to 19 year old age group
• At 85 and older the incidence of fatal car crashes jumps to 8.8 per million miles traveled
• This is the highest death rate of any age group and may have more to do with a senior’s frailty and ability to survive a crash than anything else
• Premiums tend to follow the same inverted bell curve (higher at the ends and lower in the middle)
• Fatalities among seniors have dropped over the last 10 years

Based on the quotes I’ve put together so far this year, 16 to 19 year olds tend to pay slightly more than someone who’s 80.  As drivers move beyond age 80 the premium can be more but it depends on accidents & traffic violations.

To help keep premiums low, what can either age group do?  Education is still one of the best preventative measures one can take.  New drivers can earn a discount for driver’s education and older drivers can do the same (depending on the carrier).

Have a question you want to ask or an experience to share?  Post it in the comments section or on our Facebook page.