New Jersey drivers are paying some of the highest car insurance rates in the country—and they’ve been going up fast. Now, a growing number of motorists are choosing to drive without coverage at all, according to an investigation by New Jersey Monitor.
More than 14% of Garden State drivers were uninsured in 2023, up from just 3% in 2019, according to the Insurance Research Council. That dramatic spike is the most visible consequence of a rate environment that has largely spun out of control.
Since 2022, most of the 77 insurers writing auto insurance in New Jersey have sought rate hikes each year, with companies requesting about 90 double-digit increases—some as high as 63%. The state approved 69 of them.
Some drivers saw their rates rise as much as 32.5% in the past two years alone. The average annual premium for full coverage in New Jersey is now $3,254, compared to just $1,476 in Idaho—the cheapest auto insurance state in the country.
The consequences are stark: rate hikes push low-income drivers off the road entirely—or onto it without coverage, illegally, putting themselves and everyone else at risk.
Why Are Rates So High?
Industry observers point to rising repair costs, supply chain disruptions, increased crash rates, inflation, and tariffs on vehicle parts implemented by the Trump administration. But critics also point to five state laws passed between 2019 and 2024 that made lawsuits from vehicle accidents more lucrative—raising minimum liability requirements and lowering the bar for litigation against insurers.
More controversial: New Jersey Monitor found that more than half of the legislators who sponsored those measures are lawyers, including Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Sen. Jon Bramnick—both personal injury attorneys, presenting a potential conflict of interest.
Critics also point to insurers’ practice of charging higher rates based on non-driving factors like credit score, marital status, and occupation—a practice the NAACP and two Latino groups sued the state over in November. A bill to ban it has been introduced five times in nine years without passing.
For now, the best advice from both advocates and industry insiders is simple: shop around for auto insurance.
Check out the full investigation here.