U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for February 23: Car Insurance

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

CAR INSURANCE

Profile America — Thursday, February 23rd. Car insurance is both required and a major item in the budget of many households. The idea of insuring cars against accidents began this month in 1898 when the Traveler's Insurance Company issued a policy to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo. His policy cost $12.25 and gave him $5,000 in coverage. Martin was chiefly concerned about accidents between his automobile — one of fewer than 4,000 in the entire country at the time — and horses, which numbered about 18 million on farms alone. Now, cars and trucks vastly outnumber horses. There are well over 13,000 property and casualty insurance firms in the U.S., and over $111 billion worth of insurable automotive assets are manufactured annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources:
Policy issue: Kane's Famous First Facts, 4519
19^th Century autos and horses: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 520, 716, 1208
Insurance carriers/County Business Patterns/NAICS 5241:
http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~524126  
Automobile manufacturing/ Annual Survey of Manufacturers/NAICS 336111: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ASM/2014/31VS101//prodsvc~336111

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau