Women pay more for car insurance in Washington, though they don't cause more crashes [The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.)]

Mar. 21—Women pay more than $100 a year more than men for car insurance in Washington, though they aren't necessarily worse drivers, according to a study conducted for Women's History Month.

In Washington, women pay $103 more than men for car insurance. That's the sixth-highest difference between men and women in the nation, according to LendingTree.com research.

Women pay $1,562 annually for car insurance in Washington, the 18th-highest of all U.S. states. Women pay more annually than men for auto insurance in 37 states, Lending Tree found in a survey of Quote Wizard data from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2023.

Only six states — California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — don't allow insurance companies to use gender in calculating insurance rates, Lending Tree found.

In most states, female drivers have a higher rate of driving-related incidents, such as crashes and citations for infractions such as speeding and more serious violations such as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

But not in the Evergreen State.

Massachusetts had the highest incident disparity in the U.S., at 17.8 incidents per 1,000. In Washington, the gender difference is 1.5 incidents, which puts Washington about in the middle.

State Farm (6%) and Nationwide (7%) were the insurance companies with the highest difference between rates charged to men and women, according to MarketWatch.com. Progressive (1%) and Geico (2%) were the lowest.

According to a 2022 report by the insurer Metromile, men are more likely to die in a car crash. But women often suffer more serious injuries in a crash, Metromile reported, using data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Metromile speculated that it's because men are more likely to drive a larger car or truck, while women drive smaller cars and are more likely to be driving the car that is not at fault for the crash.

This story was originally published March 21, 2024, 11:30 AM.

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