Which States Raised Car Insurance Minimums, and When

Eight States Have Raised Their Minimums Since 2023

Auto insurance minimums are supposed to be the boring part of the law. They sat still for decades — California's had not moved since 1967, Massachusetts's since 1988, Hawaii's for about twenty-five years, New Jersey's since the 1970s. Then eight states changed theirs inside three years, and a great deal of the guidance written about those states is still quoting the old numbers.

This page is a dated record of what actually changed, when it took effect, and — the part almost nobody writes down — what each state deliberately left alone.

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The Record

Two dates are already on the calendar: California rises again to 50/100/25 on 1 January 2035, written into SB 1107 at the outset, and New Jersey's second phase landed on 1 January 2026.

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The Mechanic Most Guides Get Wrong

Read the "Takes effect" column again. Seven of these eight are tied to your policy's issue or renewal date, not to the calendar date itself.

That distinction has a consequence people are rarely told about. If your state's new minimum took effect on 1 July and your policy renews in November, you were not breaking the law between July and November. You were still legally insured at the old limits, because the statute attaches to the policy, not to the driver. Your insurer raises you at renewal, usually automatically and usually without asking.

It cuts the other way too. A driver who has not renewed since before the change — someone on a long policy term, or who simply has not shopped — may still be carrying the retired limits today and be perfectly legal, while assuming they have the coverage the news reported.

North Carolina is the exception worth noting: its increase is written to a flat effective date of 1 July 2025 rather than to renewal. Tennessee shows the mechanic at its clearest — its statute says outright that a driver compliant on 31 December 2022 stayed compliant until their first renewal afterwards.

How to tell which you are on: look at your declarations page, not your state's website. The declarations page states your actual limits and your policy period. The state's website states what the floor is for policies written now.

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What Each State Left Alone

This is the detail that separates these six changes from each other, and it is where most summaries flatten them into "the minimum went up."

Utah froze the middle number. The per-person limit went from $25,000 to $30,000 and property damage from $15,000 to $25,000 — but the $65,000 per-accident figure did not move at all. Utah's minimum was already an oddity at 25/65/15; it is now 30/65/25, and that unusual per-accident number is the one part HB 113 left exactly as it found it.

Massachusetts froze PIP. Liability rose modestly, from 20/40 to 25/50. Property damage did something else entirely: $5,000 to $30,000, a sixfold increase in a single step, because that figure had stood since 1988 and no longer covered a routine bumper repair. Personal Injury Protection stayed at $8,000, exactly where it was. The change was lopsided on purpose.

New Jersey excluded an entire policy type. P.L.2022, c.87 raised the Standard policy in two phases, but its own text excludes the Basic policy under N.J.S.A. 39:6A-3.1. That tier still requires $5,000 in property damage and no bodily injury liability at all. So New Jersey's headline minimum is now 35/70/25 while its true legal floor is unchanged from the 1970s — and the gap between the state's two tiers is roughly seven times wider than it was in 2022.

North Carolina changed everything, and added more. All three figures rose, and the same law folded uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage into every new or renewed policy at matching limits. At $50,000 property damage it is the only state in the country at that level, double the $25,000 that even the other high-minimum states settle on.

Virginia removed an escape hatch. The limits rose to 50/100/25, but the more consequential change came six months earlier: the $500 Uninsured Motor Vehicle fee, which let drivers opt out of carrying insurance entirely, was abolished on 1 July 2024. Virginia had been one of only two states offering anything like it.

California scheduled its own sequel. SB 1107 did not just raise the minimum to 30/60/15 after 57 years; it wrote the next increase into the same bill, to 50/100/25 in 2035.

Tennessee moved one number and added an escape hatch. Only property damage changed, from $15,000 to $25,000; the 25/50 bodily-injury limits stayed put. Tennessee also accepts a single combined limit of $65,000 for any one accident instead of the split limits, an alternative most states do not offer. And despite what a lot of published guidance says, Tennessee requires no PIP at all — it is a straightforward at-fault state.

Hawaii left its motorcyclists behind. Act 138 doubled every automobile figure at once, 20/40/10 to 40/80/20 — the only increase in this table where all three numbers moved together. But it amended HRS § 431:10C-301, the motor vehicle section. Motorcycles and motor scooters are governed by a separate statute, HRS § 431:10G-301, which was not touched. A Hawaii rider now carries half the liability cover required of the car beside them, and PIP, which never applied to motorcycles, stayed at $10,000 for everyone else.

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What Did Not Change

Two things worth recording, because their absence is often misreported:

• South Carolina did not raise its minimum. A widely covered 2025 proposal to roughly double it was not enacted. South Carolina remains at 25/50/25, with uninsured motorist coverage mandatory at the same limits.
• New Hampshire still does not require liability insurance at all. It remains the one genuine holdout, operating a financial-responsibility standard instead. Virginia's 2024 repeal left New Hampshire alone in that category.

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Why Any of This Matters to a Driver

Your old policy is not automatically illegal. It converts at renewal. The practical risk is not a ticket; it is discovering after a crash that you were carrying limits set for 1988 repair costs.

A minimum is a floor, not a recommendation. Massachusetts's jump from $5,000 to $30,000 in property damage is an admission by a state legislature that the old floor was not survivable. Even North Carolina's $50,000 covers roughly one average new vehicle.

The numbers move now. Six changes in three years, after decades of stillness, means "the minimum in my state" is no longer a fact you learn once.

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FAQ

Which state has the highest minimum auto insurance?

North Carolina, at 50/100/50 since 1 July 2025. Alaska, Maine and Virginia match its 50/100 bodily injury but stop at $25,000 property damage, making North Carolina the only state requiring $50,000. Hawaii's 40/80/20, new in 2026, now sits just behind them.

If my state raised its minimum, do I have to buy new insurance immediately?

In most of these states, no. The requirement attaches to policies issued or renewed on or after the effective date, so your existing policy remains valid until it renews, at which point your insurer raises the limits — generally without you needing to act.

Will my premium go up because of the increase?

Usually yes, though modestly at the minimum level, since higher limits mean more exposure for the insurer. The increase is typically far smaller than the coverage gain, because the first dollars of liability coverage are the most expensive.

Does a state minimum increase apply to motorcycles too?

It depends entirely on which statute was amended, and the two ends of that are both in this table. New Jersey's compulsory-insurance statute covers every motor vehicle, so motorcycles were swept in; Massachusetts's Chapter 275 amended the general compulsory-insurance section, with the same effect; Tennessee's Financial Responsibility Law likewise covers riders. Hawaii is the opposite case: it legislates motorcycles in a separate section, so its 2026 doubling passed them by completely. Never assume the rider's figure followed the driver's.

Are more increases coming?

California's rise to 50/100/25 in 2035 is already law. Beyond that, proposals appear regularly and most do not pass — South Carolina's 2025 bill is the recent example.

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Important Disclaimer

This guide provides general information about state auto insurance minimums and the statutes that changed them. It is not legal or insurance advice. Requirements change, and the figures that apply to you depend on your own policy's issue and renewal dates. Verify current requirements with your state's department of insurance or motor vehicles, and consult a licensed insurance professional about your own situation.

Last verified: September 2026

Sources: North Carolina Department of Insurance; N.J.S.A. 39:6B-1 and N.J.S.A. 39:6A-3.1 (P.L.2022, c.87); Massachusetts Chapter 275 of the Acts of 2024 amending M.G.L. c.90 § 34A; Utah House Bill 113 (2023) and Utah Code § 31A-22-304; California Senate Bill 1107; Code of Virginia § 46.2-472; Tennessee Code Annotated § 55-12-102; Hawaii Act 138 (S.B. 2342) amending HRS § 431:10C-301, and HRS § 431:10G-301 for motorcycles; South Carolina Code § 38-77-140