Insurance Facts & Sources

Nationwide, 15.4% of U.S. drivers, more than one in seven, were uninsured in 2023.

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In 2023, distracted driving killed 3,275 people on U.S. roads, and distraction was a factor in 8% of all fatal crashes nationwide.

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Speeding remains one of the deadliest driving behaviors: in 2023, 'driving too fast for conditions or in excess of the posted limit or racing' was reported for 10,739 drivers in fatal crashes, about 18.5% of all drivers involved.

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Home reconstruction costs rose about 16 percent in a single year between mid 2020 and mid 2021, which can leave the dwelling limit shown on your declarations page behind what it would actually cost to rebuild.

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About two-thirds of insured U.S. homeowners may lack key coverages that protect against underinsurance, such as automatic inflation guard, extended replacement cost, and building-code coverage.

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On an older roof, an actual cash value settlement can pay far less than the cost of a new roof.

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Standard homeowners policies exclude water that backs up through sewers and drains.

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Wind and hail are the leading cause of homeowners insurance losses, with 2.8 percent of insured homes filing a wind or hail claim.

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In 2023, about one in 18 insured U.S. homes filed a homeowners insurance claim, meaning 5.3% of insured homes had a claim that year.

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Wind and hail is the leading cause of homeowners insurance losses, accounting for 42.5% of losses incurred in 2023, followed by water damage and freezing at 22.6% and fire and lightning at 21.6%.

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The average amount paid per homeowners insurance claim reached $20,062 in 2023, based on accident-year incurred losses.

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In an average year, about 1,000 tornadoes are reported across the United States, according to NOAA.

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NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged 5,432 hail events across the U.S. in 2025, up slightly from 5,373 in 2024.

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About one in three occupied homes in the United States is rented rather than owned.

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There are roughly 44.6 million renter-occupied homes in the United States, a large pool of households that may need renters insurance.

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Far fewer renters carry insurance than homeowners, leaving many tenants' belongings unprotected.

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Renters insurance is relatively inexpensive, averaging about $171 a year nationally.

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A condo association's master policy covers the shared common areas of the building - such as the roof, basement, elevator, boiler and walkways - for both liability and physical damage.

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Under a 'bare walls' condo master policy, the association insures only the bare walls, floor and ceiling, leaving the unit owner responsible for interior items like kitchen cabinets, built-in appliances, plumbing, wiring and bathroom fixtures.

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Nearly half of U.S. renter households - over 21 million, or 49.7% of the 42.5 million renter households - spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2023, underscoring why low-cost renters insurance matters for budget-stretched tenants.

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In a "bare walls-in" condo or co-op, the association's master policy insures only the bare walls, floor and ceiling, leaving the unit owner's HO-6 policy to cover everything inside (fixtures, built-ins, flooring, and structural elements the owner is responsible for).

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A condo unit owner's loss-assessment (unit assessment) coverage reimburses the owner's share of an assessment the association charges all unit owners after a covered loss, such as repairing fire damage to a shared lobby.

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Just one inch of floodwater can cause around $25,000 of damage to a home.

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A large share of flood insurance claims come from properties outside high-risk flood zones.

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Flood, sewer backup, and underinsured dwelling limits are among the most common homeowners coverage gaps.

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FEMA's NFIP Residential Condominium Building Association Policy (RCBAP) can be purchased only by a condo owners' association and only covers buildings where 75% or more of the floor area is for residential use.

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FEMA's NFIP flood policy for condo associations (the RCBAP) can pay up to $250,000 in building loss payments for any one unit in the building.

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Just one inch of floodwater can cause roughly $25,000 in damage to a home.

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Nearly one-third of National Flood Insurance Program claims over 2014-2024 came from areas outside current high-risk flood zones.

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Hurricane Helene generated more than 57,400 NFIP flood insurance claims totaling more than $4.5 billion across the Southeast, including Georgia.

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Under the NFIP, the maximum flood Building Property coverage for a residential condominium building's master flood policy (RCBAP) is $250,000 multiplied by the number of units in the building.

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Flooding is the most common and most expensive natural disaster in the United States, causing more than $8 billion in damage to homes and businesses in 2024 alone.

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Floods are the most common and costly natural disasters in the United States — a key reason standard homeowners policies exclude flood and a separate NFIP or private flood policy is needed.

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Hurricane Katrina (2005) remains the costliest U.S. flood event for the National Flood Insurance Program, with an average paid loss of $160,565 per claim in 2025 dollars, followed by Hurricane Harvey (2017) at $154,682.

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A personal umbrella policy adds liability protection in $1 million increments over your home and auto limits.

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A personal umbrella policy pays out only after you exhaust the liability limits on your underlying auto or home policy, adding a layer of coverage on top of them.

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Most insurers require you to carry at least $250,000 of auto liability and $300,000 of homeowners liability before they will sell you a $1 million personal umbrella policy.

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Jury awards have climbed sharply: the median of the 50 largest U.S. verdicts more than doubled from $28 million in 2014 to $58 million in 2018, the kind of judgment that can far exceed standard auto or home liability limits.

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U.S. home insurers paid out $1,862 million for dog bite and other dog-related injury liability claims in 2025, and the average cost per claim has risen 97.0 percent from 2016 to 2025 as settlements, judgments and jury awards climb - the kind of large liability award a personal umbrella policy is designed to cover above a homeowners policy's limit.

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In personal injury lawsuits, the median jury award reached $125,366 in 2020, but individual awards ran as high as $373,763,109 that year - showing how a single judgment can dwarf standard auto or homeowners liability limits and reach into personal umbrella (excess liability) coverage.

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The average bodily injury liability claim under private passenger (personal) auto insurance reached a severity of $28,278 in 2024 - and when an at-fault crash injures someone badly enough to exceed an auto policy's liability limit, a personal umbrella policy pays the excess.

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A landlord's insurance does not cover a tenant's belongings or personal liability.

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A landlord or rental dwelling policy generally costs about 25 percent more than a standard homeowners policy.

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A landlord's insurance covers only the building structure and the owner's financial interest in it; the tenant's personal belongings are not covered by the landlord's policy.

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Because a landlord's policy does not cover a tenant's belongings, many landlords require tenants to buy renters insurance before signing a lease.

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The number of rented (renter-occupied) housing units in the United States rose to 44.6 million, up from 43.3 million.

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A landlord's insurance policy covers only the building structure, not the tenant's belongings or living expenses, which is why renters need their own policy for personal property and liability.

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In 2024, about two-thirds of occupied U.S. housing units were owner-occupied and roughly one-third were renter-occupied, meaning tens of millions of rental units in the country lack the owner's homeowners coverage and need separate renters protection.

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Nationwide in 2023 there were 3,844 recreational boating accidents that caused 564 deaths, down from 4,040 accidents and 636 deaths the year before.

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The 2023 U.S. recreational boating fatality rate was 4.9 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels, a 9.3 percent drop from the prior year's rate of 5.4.

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Where the cause of death was known in 2023 boating accidents, 75 percent of victims drowned, and 87 percent of those drowning victims were not wearing a life jacket.

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In 2022, 6,218 motorcyclists were killed in the U.S., making up 15 percent of all traffic fatalities.

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Per mile traveled, motorcyclists died at a rate almost 22 times higher than people in passenger cars in 2022.

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Per 100,000 registered vehicles in 2022, the motorcyclist fatality rate was 5 times that of passenger car occupants.

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In calendar year 2024, the U.S. Coast Guard counted 3,887 recreational boating incidents nationwide, which caused 556 deaths, 2,170 injuries, and roughly $88 million in property damage.

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States registered 11,674,073 recreational vessels in 2024, a 1.1% increase over the prior year, underscoring how large the pool of insurable recreational boats in the U.S. is.

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Collisions — with other vessels, with fixed objects, and groundings — were the most frequent type of recreational boating accident in 2024, making up 56% of all reported incidents; collision with a fixed object alone was the single leading incident type at 929 incidents.

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Per mile traveled, motorcyclists are far more likely to die in a crash than people in passenger cars. In 2023, the motorcyclist fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (31.39) was almost 28 times the passenger car occupant rate (1.13).

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Motorcycles are a small slice of vehicles on the road but a hugely outsized share of deaths. In 2023 motorcycles were just 3.1% of all registered vehicles and 0.6% of miles driven, yet per 100,000 registered vehicles their fatality rate (66.57) was almost 6 times that of passenger car occupants (11.61).

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Most U.S. motorcyclists already wear a federally approved helmet, but a large share of those killed are not. National DOT-compliant helmet use was 73.8% in 2023, and there were 6,335 motorcyclists killed that year, up from 6,251 in 2022.

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A business owners policy bundles property and liability coverage, often for less than buying each separately.

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There are more than 36 million small businesses in the United States, accounting for 99.9 percent of all U.S. businesses.

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A business owners policy (BOP) bundles the two core coverages most small businesses need into one package: property insurance for your building and business property, and liability insurance for injuries to others.

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There are 36.2 million small businesses in the United States, making up 99.9 percent of all U.S. businesses and employing 62.3 million people (45.9 percent of the private-sector workforce).

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An estimated 40 percent of businesses never reopen after a disaster, and another 25 percent of those that do reopen fail within one year.

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General liability protects a business against third-party claims of bodily injury and property damage.

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Workplace falls cost an estimated $70 billion a year in the U.S. in workers' compensation and medical expenses.

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General liability insurance protects a business against financial loss from third-party bodily injury, property damage, medical costs, libel, slander, and the cost of defending lawsuits.

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Legal system abuse and litigation trends added between $231.6 billion and $281.2 billion to U.S. liability insurance losses over the past decade, pushing up premiums far faster than economic inflation alone.

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Slips, trips, and falls are a leading cause of serious workplace injury, killing 805 U.S. workers in 2020.

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Beyond deaths, falls caused 211,640 severe injuries that forced private-industry U.S. workers to miss work in 2020.

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Private-industry employers across the U.S. reported 2.6 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2023, down 8.4 percent from 2022.

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The U.S. private-industry incidence rate of total recordable workplace injury and illness cases was 2.4 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers in 2023, the lowest in the series back to 2003.

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U.S. workers' compensation benefits paid to injured workers and their medical providers totaled $61.7 billion in 2022.

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Workers' compensation and medical expenses from workplace falls are estimated to cost about $70 billion every year in the United States, underscoring how expensive slip, trip, and fall injuries are for businesses and their insurers.

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There were 5,283 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2023, a rate of 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers — averaging about 15 worker deaths a day, down from roughly 38 a day in 1970.

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Falls are the leading cause of death in construction: in 2024 there were 389 fatal falls to a lower level out of 1,034 total construction fatalities.

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Transportation-related accidents (including vehicle crashes) were the leading cause of workplace deaths in 2023, with 1,942 fatalities — 36.8 percent of all workplace deaths.

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Personal auto policies exclude most business use, a gap that commercial auto coverage fills.

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In 2023, 5,472 people were killed and an estimated 153,452 were injured in U.S. traffic crashes involving large trucks.

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Most people killed in large-truck crashes are not the truck occupants: in 2023, 70 percent of those killed were occupants of other vehicles.

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A personal auto policy does not cover commercial use of a vehicle, and a vehicle owned by a business has no coverage under a personal auto policy, so businesses generally need commercial auto insurance.

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An estimated 528,177 large trucks were involved in police-reported traffic crashes nationwide in 2023, and an estimated 153,452 people were injured in crashes involving large trucks.

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Professional liability, or errors and omissions, covers claims that your work or advice caused a client a financial loss.

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Professional liability insurance, also called errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, covers claims that general liability insurance does not, including negligence, misrepresentation, violation of good faith and fair dealing, and inaccurate advice.

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Most professional liability (E&O) policies are written on a claims-made basis, meaning the policy must be in effect both when the event happened and when the lawsuit is filed for a claim to be paid.

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The U.S. Small Business Administration advises that businesses providing services to customers need professional liability insurance, which protects against financial loss from malpractice, errors, and negligence.

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A professional who works out of their home needs a separate professional liability policy, because a standard homeowners policy does not cover professional services performed for a fee.

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About 7.4% of all physicians can expect a medical malpractice (professional liability) claim to be filed against them in any given year, showing how routinely service professionals face negligence claims.

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Roughly 78% of medical malpractice claims close with no payment to the claimant - meaning most professional liability claims are defended rather than paid, which is exactly why services firms need E&O coverage to fund a legal defense even on claims they ultimately win.

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The U.S. Small Business Administration tells service-based small businesses that professional liability (E&O) insurance protects against financial loss from malpractice, errors, and negligence - the core risk any firm that gives advice or performs services to customers carries.

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Small businesses are frequent cyberattack targets, often because they lack dedicated security staff.

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Nationwide in 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 859,532 complaints and a record $16.6 billion in reported losses, a 33% jump from the prior year.

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Even at the low end of published research, a single cyber incident costs a small or mid-sized business roughly $117,000 to $149,000 on average, according to a CISA cost-of-cyber-incident study.

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Business Email Compromise (BEC) was one of the costliest cybercrimes in 2024, causing $2.77 billion in reported losses across 21,442 complaints to the FBI's IC3 - making it the second-highest loss category despite ranking far lower by complaint volume.

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A farmowners (farm package) policy insures the dwelling and farm structures, including mobile homes, household belongings, and both listed and unlisted farm personal property on the premises.

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The liability section of a farmowners policy protects the farm or ranch owner against claims for bodily injury or property damage arising from the premises or farm operations.

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The U.S. had 1,900,487 farms covering 880 million acres in 2022 — the first time the national farm count fell below 2 million since before the Civil War — a 7% drop in farms and 2.2% drop in farmland since 2017.

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U.S. farms and ranches earned $1.26 billion from agritourism and on-farm recreation services in 2022 (up 12.4% from 2017 after inflation), with about 57% of counties reporting agritourism income — a fast-growing liability exposure for farm owners who host visitors.

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