Canadians are paying considerably more for auto insurance today than they had in 2019, according to Statistics Canada.
In a new report, the government agency says that between December 2019 to December 2024, the average insurance premium rose 22.3 percent.
The report cited vehicle part prices as the leading cause of premium price increases. As a result of rising prices, the average cost of claims had increased significantly.
In Canada’s largest province, some of the price rise could also be attributed to an increase in the incidence of vehicle theft. In 2023, more than $1.5 billion worth of automobiles were stolen in Ontario — a record. As a result, insurers ended up paying an average of $1.90 for each dollar of vehicle theft insurance they had sold.
In other parts of the country, extreme weather events played an even larger role in pushing up premiums. StatsCan found that 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 were each among the ten costliest years in terms of insurance claims related to extreme weather events and that 2024 had been the costliest year on record, with claims reaching $8.6 billion.
What’s unusual about these pricey premiums is that they come during a time when Canadians are driving less. According to the government agency, driving habits began to change during the Coronavirus pandemic, but these changes continued even after the end of social distancing mandates.
Higher insurance prices aren’t the only drain on driver’s wallets. During the period between December 2019 and December 2025, the price of an average new vehicle rose by 61.5 per cent and the average price of a used vehicle by 82.2 percent.
