Minimum liability car insurance requirements by state

To drive legally in nearly every state you must carry liability car insurance. Liability coverage kicks in if you're at fault for an accident and you hurt someone or damage someone's property. It has two parts:

• bodily injury liability (BI), which pays for injuries to others
• property damage liability (PD), which pays for damage to someone else’s car or property

Each state requires you to have a minimum level of liability coverage, though you can buy more to ensure you’re fully protected if you cause an accident. In many cases, raising your liability limits is strongly encouraged. Liability insurance is commonly shown in the following format: 20/40/10. The first two numbers refer to bodily injury liability limits and the third number to property damage liability. In this example, 20/40/10 means coverage up to $20,000 for each person injured in an accident, up to a maximum of $40,000 for the entire accident, and $10,000 worth of coverage for property damage.

Liability insurance doesn't cover your own injuries or damage to your own property.

In some states, other coverages are required in addition to liability. These may include personal injury protection (PIP), uninsured motorist coverage (UM) and underinsured motorist coverage (UIM).

Minimum liability car insurance requirements by state

Source: Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and Insurance Information Institute; state departments of insurance and motor vehicles.

Key to acronyms:

• UM: Uninsured motorist coverage
• UIM: Underinsured motorist coverage
• UM BI: Uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage
• UMPD: Uninsured motorist property damage coverage
• PIP: Personal injury protection
• PPI: Property protection insurance (applies only to Michigan)
• BI liability: Bodily injury liability

How much does minimum liability car insurance cost?

Below you'll see average rates by state for minimum liability levels of coverage. Enter your state in the search field in the chart below to find out what you can expect to pay. Even with bare-bones coverage, you can still save on car insurance by comparing rates. The difference between the highest and lowest rate fielded from major insurers can vary by hundreds --sometimes thousands -- of dollars.

Minimum liability insurance: Average rates by company

To compare car insurance rates by company, below you'll see how major insurers rank on price for state minimum liability coverage.

As you can see, among top insurers from whom rates were commissioned, Geico is the cheapest car insurance company in the nation's capital and every state, except the following, for state minimum liability coverage:

• Iowa
• Illinois
• Massachusetts
• Maryland
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• New Jersey
• Nevada
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Virginia

Here are nationwide average car insurance rates by company for state required minimum liability coverage:

• Geico -- $338
• State Farm -- $454
• Nationwide -- $523
• Progressive -- $552
• Farmers -- $659
• Allstate -- $667