Key Takeaways
- Distracted driving violations rose 57% since 2022 with only a 2% increase in miles driven, meaning driver behavior is the cause, not more time on the road.
- Bodily injury claims now account for more than 26% of total auto insurance claims dollars, up from less than 20% in 2022. The BI-to-property-damage ratio hit 29 per 100 claims in 2025.
- 47% of all auto policies-in-force were shopped at least once in the prior 12 months, an all-time high. Consumers are responding to four years of sustained rate hikes.
- The share of policies with deductibles of $1,000 or more rose from 23% in 2022 to 33% in 2025. Consumers are absorbing more out-of-pocket risk to reduce premiums, which is a rational response but one that increases financial exposure after an accident.
Distracted driving violations surged 57% between 2022 and 2025, miles driven increased only 2% in the same period, and bodily injury now claims more than 26 cents of every dollar auto insurers pay out in claims. That is the summary of the 2026 U.S. Auto Insurance Trends Report, released May 19 by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and it explains why rate increases for 2026 and 2027 are not over.
The distracted driving numbers are striking because the mileage figure rules out the obvious alternative explanation. More driving means more accidents. But driving is barely up. The violation rate is up because driver behavior changed, not because drivers spent more time behind the wheel. Drivers aged 36 to 45 saw violations rise more than 70%. Drivers aged 66 and older saw a 73% increase. The age profile tells you this is not a teenage-driver problem or a new-license problem. It is a phone problem across the entire driving population.
The bodily injury shift is the more consequential number for what you pay. The ratio of bodily injury claims to property damage claims moved from 24 per 100 in 2022 to 29 per 100 in 2025. More than 26% of total claims dollars now go to BI, up from less than 20% four years ago. Bodily injury claims are expensive to settle and slow to close, and they generate legal costs that property damage claims typically don’t. Jeff Batiste, SVP and general manager for U.S. auto and home insurance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, noted in the report’s release that both BI frequency and severity continued rising through 2025.
When I wrote auto policies through the 2017-2019 hard market, bodily injury severity was the conversation nobody wanted to have publicly. Carriers knew medical cost inflation and litigation trends were eating into their loss ratios, but the public messaging stayed focused on weather events and repair costs because those are easier to explain and harder to dispute. The LexisNexis data shows what was happening back then has only accelerated. The ratio of bodily injury claims to property damage claims shifted from 24 per 100 in 2022 to 29 per 100 in 2025. That is not a rounding error. That is a structural change in what auto insurance actually pays for, and it is the reason that rate filings I’ve seen recently are requesting bodily injury loss development factors well above what weather or parts costs alone would justify.
Policy shopping is at an all-time high: 47% of all auto policies-in-force were shopped at least once in the prior 12 months as of Q4 2025. That is consumer behavior adapting to four years of sustained increases. The national average full-coverage premium sits around $2,637 in 2026. Consumers are looking for relief, and some are finding it: 56% now say insurance cost is a key factor in vehicle purchase decisions, second only to monthly payment at 63%.
The shopping surge has a shadow side. The share of policies carrying deductibles of $1,000 or more rose from 23% in 2022 to 33% in 2025. That is one-third of insured drivers who have opted into higher out-of-pocket exposure to lower their monthly bill. It is a rational response to premium pressure, but a $1,000 deductible on a rear-end collision that causes $2,500 in damage means the policyholder absorbs 40% of the loss. That math changes after an accident.
There is a tariff wildcard in the 2026 outlook that the LexisNexis report does not fully account for, because the data runs through 2025. Insurify has noted that the impact of import tariffs on auto parts and repair costs has not yet fully worked its way into consumer premiums. Repair cost inflation was already a primary driver of the 2022-2025 rate cycle. A second wave of parts-cost increases in 2026 would arrive just as the BI cost trend is also accelerating.
State variation is wide. New Jersey policyholders face an expected 10.46% increase in 2026; Nevada is up 6.42%. Iowa and Minnesota are among the few states projecting decreases, at 6.19% and 5.29% respectively. The New York Department of Financial Services, following Governor Hochul’s May 7 budget deal, will implement prior approval requirements for rate hikes and new limits on certain rating criteria, making New York a meaningful test case for whether regulatory intervention can hold increases below what the underlying loss data supports.
For drivers reviewing their coverage, the LexisNexis data points to two practical questions. First, if you raised your deductible in the last two years to offset premium increases, check whether your emergency fund can actually cover that deductible before you need to file a claim. Second, the 47% shopping rate means carriers are competing for retention. If you haven’t compared car insurance rates in the last 12 months, you are likely paying more than the market requires for your risk profile. The best car insurance options vary significantly by state and driving record, and the spread between carriers is wider now than it was two years ago precisely because some insurers are more exposed to the BI trend than others.
