Resulting from a combination of economic conditions, claims behavior and the state’s litigation environment, Louisiana is the least affordable state in the nation for personal auto insurance, according a new research brief by the Insurance Research Council (IRC), an affiliate of The Institutes.

The report, “Auto Insurance Affordability in Louisiana 2022,” indicates the average annual expenditure for auto insurance in Louisiana was $1,588 per vehicle, 40 percent higher than the national average of $1,127 and higher than any other state except Florida.

Several factors have contributed to the rising cost of insurance in Louisiana, including injury claim frequency, underinsured motorists and claim litigation.

Auto insurance costs accounted for 2.67 percent of the median household income in the state.

Personal auto insurance expenditures in Louisiana were well above those in any other Southern state, as were most of the key underlying cost drivers.

Strong income growth in recent years resulted in moderate improvement in the affordability measure since its peak in 2017, but Louisiana has maintained its decades-long streak as the least affordable jurisdiction for auto insurance, the report noted.

“Affordability issues in Louisiana’s personal auto insurance stem from multiple factors,” said Dale Porfilio, FCAS, MAAA, president of the IRC. “These include a higher tendency to file injury claims when an accident occurs, a high underinsured motorist’s rate, and a high rate of claim litigation. These underlying cost drivers need to be addressed to improve affordability.”

Porfilio, who is also chief insurance officer of the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), noted that the state’s culture of litigiousness is evident.

“Attorney advertising data, surveys of business attitudes, and claims research all point to longstanding issues of legal system abuse in Louisiana.”

The data showed that median household income in Louisiana was 22 percent below the U.S. average.

Combined with the state’s high premiums, the auto insurance expenditure share of income – IRC’s key measure of affordability – is 2.7 percent in Louisiana, compared with 1.5 percent in the U.S. overall.

Injury coverages accounted for the largest share of insurance expenditures in Louisiana, 1.3 percent of income, double the share for the U.S. as a whole.

Louisiana drivers spent 1.0 percent of their income for crash repair coverage and 0.4 percent to cover vehicle damage from weather or other non-crash causes.