Prevalence figures reflect 2023 Insurance Research Council data (the latest available); pricing reflects 2025–2026 insurer and analyst figures. Coverage requirements and rates vary by state and carrier — confirm details with your insurer before making a decision. This article is educational and not insurance advice.
TL;DR — Quick Verdict
- Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage costs roughly $50 to $136 a year depending on the analyst — Forbes Advisor pegs the UM-only average at $136, while an IRC-affiliated survey puts the median bodily injury portion at just $50.
- 15.4% of U.S. drivers were uninsured in 2023, and 33.4% were either uninsured or underinsured, according to the Insurance Research Council — roughly one in three cars you pass.
- The average uninsured motorist property damage (UMPD) claim pays $2,387 (NAIC via Forbes Advisor); a serious bodily injury claim averaged $17,024 (ISO). Both dwarf the annual premium.
- Comparison result: at a $90 median combined price, UM coverage pays for itself if you file even one modest claim in a 25-year driving span.
- Recommendation: buy UM/UIM matching your liability limits unless you already carry robust collision plus strong health coverage — the cost-to-protection ratio is among the best in any auto policy.
One in three American drivers carried no insurance or too little of it in 2023, according to the Insurance Research Council’s report Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists: 2017–2023. That single statistic reframes a coverage most people click past when buying a policy through GEICO, Progressive, or State Farm. Uninsured motorist coverage — the line item that pays you when the at-fault driver can’t — often costs less than a tank of gas per year, yet it stands between you and five-figure medical bills.
This article breaks down what UM coverage actually costs versus what it pays out, using verified figures from the IRC, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and Forbes Advisor’s rate analysis. You’ll get an original cost-versus-payout model, a state-requirement breakdown, a head-to-head against collision coverage, and the specific mistakes that leave drivers underprotected. The IRC data anchors the risk side; insurer pricing anchors the cost side. By the end you’ll know whether the premium is worth it for your situation — not in the abstract, but against real dollar figures.
What Uninsured Motorist Coverage Actually Costs
Price estimates cluster low, but they scatter based on what’s being measured. Forbes Advisor’s analysis puts the UM-only portion of a policy at an average of $136 a year. An IRC-affiliated consumer survey reports a median of $50 annually for the bodily injury portion (UMBI) and $38 for property damage (UMPD) — about $90 combined. ValuePenguin’s Geico sample quotes land between $86 and $134 for a robust 100/300 bodily injury policy. The spread comes from mean-versus-median math and from state risk pools, not from disagreement about the category being cheap.
Why so inexpensive? Insurers treat a UM claim as a first-party claim, and the pool of payouts stays small relative to liability. Your own rate mostly tracks the uninsured-driver density of your state. States with more uninsured drivers charge more, because the odds you’ll actually use the coverage climb.
Sources: Forbes Advisor UM analysis, IRC-affiliated consumer survey, ValuePenguin. Verify at forbes.com/advisor, insurance-research.org, and valuepenguin.com. Figures are medians or averages and vary by state, carrier, and limits.
Because UM prices ride so closely on where you live, the same driver who is quoted $50 in a low-risk state might see triple that in a high-uninsured state. If your rate looks unusually high across the whole policy, it’s worth reviewing the strategies to lower car insurance premiums before you trim protective coverages.
What Uninsured Motorist Coverage Pays Out
Payout is where the value case gets made. The average UMPD claim pays $2,387, according to NAIC data cited by Forbes Advisor. On the injury side the stakes climb sharply: the average bodily injury claim ran $17,024 in ISO data reported by The Zebra, and a serious injury requiring surgery and rehabilitation routinely exceeds $100,000. UM coverage steps into exactly these gaps — when the other driver has no policy, or fled the scene, or whose insurer denied the claim.
Consider a concrete scenario. You’re rear-ended by a driver with no insurance. Your car sustains $2,400 in damage and you incur $12,000 in medical bills. Without UM, that $14,400 is yours to absorb or chase through a lawsuit against someone who, by definition, has few assets to collect. With UM/UIM matching a 100/300 limit, your own insurer pays the medical portion up to $100,000 per person and the property portion up to your UMPD limit — often with a deductible as low as $250.
Now run the ratio. At a $90 median combined premium, one average UMPD claim of $2,387 returns roughly 26 years of premiums in a single payout. One average bodily injury claim of $17,024 returns nearly 190 years of premiums. Even the higher $136 average premium recovers its cost in a single modest claim. That asymmetry — pennies in, thousands out — is why consumer advocates rank UM among the highest-value dollars in an auto policy.
Where Uninsured Motorist Coverage Is Required — and Where It Isn’t
Roughly 20 states plus the District of Columbia mandate uninsured motorist coverage, while others require insurers only to offer it. Full UM coverage is required in states including Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and D.C., per CoverageCriteria’s 2026 state chart. In California, Florida, and Texas, UM is optional — you can reject it in writing.
State minimums shifted recently, which changes both required limits and pricing. Several states raised their floors in 2025 and 2026, more movement than the prior decade combined.
Sources: MoneyGeek and Bankrate state-minimum trackers. Verify at moneygeek.com and bankrate.com. Notation reads bodily-injury-per-person / per-accident / property-damage.
New Hampshire remains the sole state without a compulsory insurance law, though drivers there must still demonstrate financial responsibility. Requirements shift by legislative session, so your renewal documents are the authoritative source. Where you live also drives your baseline rate — see how the average car insurance cost by state varies before assuming your quote is off.
UM Property Damage vs. Collision: Which Is Better After an Uninsured Hit?
Both coverages can repair your car after a crash with an uninsured driver, which leads many drivers to buy one and skip the other. The distinction matters financially. UMPD pays only when an uninsured driver damages your vehicle, and it often carries a lower deductible — California’s minimum is $250, for example. Collision pays regardless of fault, including single-car accidents, but typically carries a $500 or $1,000 deductible.
Coverage geography complicates the choice. UMPD isn’t offered in every state, and six states bar its use for hit-and-run damage, forcing you to rely on collision in those cases. In several states UMPD only pays your collision deductible if you already carry collision. That overlap is real, and it’s the reason Forbes Advisor notes most drivers with collision don’t strictly need UMPD.
Run the math for a $3,000 repair from an uninsured driver. With UMPD at a $250 deductible, you pay $250 and recover $2,750. With collision at a $1,000 deductible, you pay $1,000. UMPD wins the specific scenario by $750 — but collision wins on breadth, covering the pothole, the guardrail, and the at-fault-you accident. If you’re weighing which layers to keep, the broader comprehensive vs collision coverage comparison and the deductible choice impact on total insurance cost both feed this decision.
Verdict
If you already carry collision, UMPD is a low-priority add unless you live in a high-uninsured state and want the lower deductible on uninsured-driver claims. If you carry no collision, UMPD is worth having where offered — it’s the only line that repairs your car after an uninsured hit. Bodily injury UM, by contrast, has no collision substitute and should be prioritized regardless.
What Most People Get Wrong About UM Coverage
Three errors recur, and each one carries a measurable cost.
Mistake one: assuming liability coverage protects you. Liability pays for damage you cause to others. It does nothing when an uninsured driver injures you. Drivers who reject UM believing their liability policy has them covered discover the gap only at claim time — after a $17,024 average injury bill has landed. The correct action is to add UM/UIM matching your liability limits.
Mistake two: buying the state minimum and stopping. California’s minimum bodily injury of $15,000 (30/60 as of 2025) evaporates against a moderate emergency-room visit. Because raising UM limits typically costs under $50 more per year, the marginal dollars buy disproportionate protection. The correct action is to carry at least 100/300 if you can afford the small step up.
Mistake three: fearing a rate hike after a not-at-fault UM claim. A not-at-fault UM claim generally should not raise your premium, since you’re using a benefit you already paid for; even the average UIM-related increase is only about $98 a year, and some insurers refrain from raising rates at all. The correct action is to file the legitimate claim rather than eating the loss — and to understand how filing a claim without raising your rate works in practice. If you’ve already had a surchargeable event, review premium increases after an accident and duration so you can time your shopping.
Is Uninsured Motorist Coverage Worth It For You?
Worth-it turns on three variables: your state’s uninsured-driver density, your existing coverage, and your health insurance. Start with density. In Mississippi, 28.2% of drivers were uninsured in 2023 per the IRC — better than one in four. In Maine the figure was 5.7%. The higher your state’s rate, the more the premium justifies itself, and the more your insurer will charge for it.
If you live in a high-uninsured state, drive frequently, or have limited health coverage, UM/UIM is close to mandatory in practical terms even where it’s legally optional. Carry it at your liability limits. If you live in a low-uninsured state, already hold strong collision plus comprehensive health insurance, and have substantial savings, the property-damage portion becomes optional — though bodily injury UM still earns its keep because health insurance rarely replaces lost wages the way UMBI can.
For most drivers the arithmetic settles the question. A $90-to-$136 annual premium against a $2,387 average property claim and a $17,024 average injury claim is a lopsided trade in the buyer’s favor. The coverage is inexpensive precisely because catastrophic use is uncommon — but “uncommon” is not “never” when one in three cars around you is uninsured or underinsured. Pair the decision with your view on full coverage vs liability-only cost trade-offs, and if you finance or lease, factor in gap insurance cost and when it is worth buying as a companion protection. Drivers rebuilding a record after a lapse should also check SR-22 insurance costs, requirements, and duration, since UM requirements still apply.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does uninsured motorist coverage cover hit-and-run accidents?
In most states, yes. Insurers typically treat an unidentified hit-and-run driver as uninsured for bodily injury claims, so UMBI applies. Filing a police report is usually critical, and some states require physical contact between vehicles to qualify. Six states bar UMPD from covering hit-and-run vehicle damage, per Insurance.com, meaning you’d rely on collision coverage there instead. Rules vary, so confirm with your carrier.
Will filing a UM claim raise my premium?
A not-at-fault uninsured motorist claim generally should not raise your rate, because you’re drawing on a benefit you already funded. Where increases do occur, the average UIM-related bump is roughly $98 a year, and some insurers — State Farm among them, per industry reporting — typically refrain from raising rates after these claims. Increases most often follow only when the policyholder was at fault.
How much UM coverage should I buy?
Match your UM/UIM bodily injury limits to your liability limits — a common recommendation is 100/300 ($100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident). The price difference between low and high UM limits is typically under $50 per year, per InsuredBetter, so stepping up buys outsized protection cheaply. In required states your insurer may add at least the state minimum automatically; you can request higher limits up to your liability amount.
What’s the difference between uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage?
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage pays when the at-fault driver has no liability insurance or flees the scene. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage pays when the at-fault driver has insurance but not enough to cover your losses. The IRC found 15.4% of drivers uninsured and 18.0% underinsured in 2023 — a combined 33.4%. Fourteen states require UIM as standalone coverage, and limits usually track your liability amounts.
How We Researched This Article
This analysis draws on primary and reputable secondary sources for both the risk side and the cost side of the uninsured motorist question. Prevalence figures — the 15.4% uninsured rate, the 18.0% underinsured rate, the combined 33.4%, and the state range from Maine’s 5.7% to Mississippi’s 28.2% — come from the Insurance Research Council’s report Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists: 2017–2023, which estimated prevalence using data from 17 insurers representing roughly 55% of the private-passenger auto market. Those figures reflect 2023, the most recent year the IRC collected national data.
Cost figures were triangulated across three sources to capture the mean-versus-median spread: Forbes Advisor’s UM analysis ($136 average UM-only; $2,387 average UMPD claim via NAIC), an IRC-affiliated consumer survey ($50 UMBI, $38 UMPD, $90 combined medians), and ValuePenguin’s Geico sample quotes ($86–$134 for 100/300). State requirements and 2025–2026 minimum changes were verified against MoneyGeek and Bankrate trackers. The average bodily injury claim of $17,024 reflects ISO data reported by The Zebra and predates the pricing year; it is included as an order-of-magnitude reference, not a current-year figure.
The cost-versus-payout ratios in this article are modeled, not measured — they divide reported average claim amounts by reported median premiums to illustrate the asymmetry, and individual outcomes will vary with limits, deductibles, state, and carrier. Where sources disagreed on cost, we reported the range rather than a single point. This research was last conducted in July 2026. All figures were verified against named primary sources before publication.