Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage reimburses policyholders in an accident involving an uninsured, underinsured or hit-and-run driver. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have mandatory requirements for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. More than half of the states have passed laws and begun to develop and implement online auto insurance verification systems to identify uninsured motorists.
In 2022, 14.0 percent of motorists, or about one in seven drivers, were uninsured, according to a 2023 study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC). From 2017 to 2019, most states saw declining UM (Uninsured Motorist) rates. The largest decrease was in Montana, while the largest increases were in Florida and Michigan. With the start of the pandemic, the UM rate jumped in nearly every state in 2020, with the largest increase in the District of Columbia. From 2020 to 2022, the UM rate continued upward in many states but declined in Others. Michigan saw the largest decline with a 6.2 percentage-point drop. The IRC measures the number of uninsured motorists based on insurance claims, using a ratio of insurance claims made by people who were injured by uninsured drivers relative to the claims made by people who were injured by insured drivers. In 2022, 19 states and the District of Columbia had uninsured motorist rates greater than the countrywide rate (14.0 percent) while 31 states had rates below the countrywide rate.
