The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

Average Cost of Car Insurance for Young Drivers (2024)

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It's no surprise that young, teen drivers pay more for car insurance. A young driver's lack of experience and limited driving history is potentially risky for car insurance companies to insure, so they charge more to insure new drivers. But how much will a new driver pay? We've crunched the numbers to determine the cost of UK car insurance for an 18-year-old driver in England by major city, so you'll know what to expect to pay depending on where you live. Rates will be similar for 17 and 19 year olds.

Young Driver Insurance Cost

If price is your priority, you'll probably opt for one of the cheapest plans available to you. The NimbleFins team gathered over 400 young driver insurance quotes across 10 cities in England, and calculated that the average premium for cheap comprehensive cover for an 18-year-old driver was £1,752 per year. But rates varied significantly by area, with young drivers in Liverpool, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester being quoted over £2,000 a year. Sheffield and Bristol young drivers paid the least in our study, just over £1,100 per year. That means young drivers in some areas pay nearly 2X as much as young drivers in other areas.

Here's How Much a Young Driver will pay for Cheap Car Insurance by City

RankCityAverage Annual Premium
1Sheffield£1,130
2Bristol£1,151
3London£1,414
4Newcastle£1,535
5Sunderland£1,551
6Leeds£1,668
7Liverpool£2,005
8Birmingham£2,172
9Bradford£2,441
10Manchester£2,454
Average£1,752
chart showing the cost of cheap car insurance for young drivers by UK city

Between the high cost of insurance and the average driver spending over £1,000 on driving lessons (at a cost of £34 per hour-long driving lesson), being a young driver is not cheap.

Want young driver insurance? We can help.

Get ANNUAL young driver insurance quotes here. You could save up to £530.*

Get annual quotes

Get SHORT TERM young driver insurance quotes here (1 hr - 28 days).

Get short-term quotes

Methodology

In order to determine what a young driver will typically pay for comprehensive car insurance, we gathered quotes for a sample 18-year-old male driver with a Full UK Licence who drives a 2016 Ford Fiesta, the UK's most popular car. (For more information on how insurance costs vary by make and model of car, please see our article, What Does it Cost to Insure the UK's Most Popular Vehicles?) Altogether we collected over 400 quotes for a driver living in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle and Sunderland, who drives under 5,000 miles per year. Quotes included cover for a courtesy car, breakdown, personal accident and legal cover. Quotes were gathered from plans from the following car insurance companies:

  • Academy Insurance
  • Achoice
  • Admiral
  • Admiral LittleBox
  • Apricot Insurance
  • Apricot Plus
  • Apricot Premier
  • Arkwright
  • Aura OpenGI
  • Bell
  • Brightside
  • Budget
  • Churchill
  • Churchill Drivesure
  • Churchill Plus
  • City Insurance
  • Co-op Young Driver
  • Dial Direct
  • Dial Direct Premier
  • Diamond
  • Elephant
  • Flux Direct
  • Ford Insure
  • General Accident
  • Go Girl
  • GSI SSP
  • Hastings Direct
  • Hastings Essential
  • Hastings Premier
  • Ingenie
  • Insure Pink
  • Lloyds Bank
  • Marmalade
  • More Th>n Smart Wheels
  • One Call Insurance
  • Peoples Choice
  • People's Choice
  • Policywise CDL
  • Policywise Telematics CDL
  • Post Office
  • Post Office Premier
  • Privilege
  • Privilege Plus
  • Privilege Telematics
  • RAC
  • RAC Black Box
  • Smart Driver Club
  • Sterling Insurance
  • WiseDriving - Self Install

Comments

The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

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