Northern Ireland recorded the smallest quarterly drop in car insurance prices of any UK region, with insurance premiums falling by just £2, as the province falls increasingly out of step with a national trend.
Data from CompareNI.com puts the region's average annual premium at £624.60, roughly 8% above the UK average. Northern Ireland held some of the lowest rates in 2024 but has since risen to the third most expensive region.
The West Midlands saw drops of nearly £50 and London more than £30. Northern Ireland's decline amounted to less than 1%.
The national picture is markedly different. The Confused.com Car Insurance Price Index, produced with WTW, showed in March that comprehensive premiums had fallen 9%, or £66, over the past year, with the UK average now at £711.
Insurance premiums have dropped £284 since peaking at £995 in December 2023.
A key factor is that whiplash reforms introduced in England and Wales in May 2021 under the Civil Liability Act do not apply in Northern Ireland.
The reforms set fixed compensation tariffs for minor whiplash injuries and were estimated by the government to remove more than £1.2 billion from motor car insurance costs. An HM Treasury report published last year found actual savings more modest, at £15 to £31 per policy.
WTW's Tim Rourke noted in January that bodily injury claims fell from 16% of insurers' spend in 2021 to 9% in 2025, a shift he linked largely to the reforms. Northern Ireland sees no such benefit.
MP Robin Swann has called on Westminster and Stormont to act. A government review of personal injury claims in the region could reduce average insurance premiums by around £90.
DWF, the global legal firm, reported early last year that the volume of accident management companies in Northern Ireland had more than doubled over the preceding 18 months. Unlike in England and Wales, these firms are unregulated in the region.
Motorists aged 17 to 24 in Northern Ireland pay an average of £1,386, about 26% higher than the national average for that age group. In Belfast, 18-year-old drivers face premiums exceeding £3,150, roughly £600 more than their London counterparts, though costs fall by more than £700 by age 19.
Disparities within the region are stark. Twenty-year-old drivers in Causeway Coast and Glens pay £936, compared to £2,217 in Belfast.
Drivers aged 17 to 23 account for 24% of fatal or serious accidents while holding about 8% of licences. In 2024, there were 164 road casualties involving a young driver deemed responsible.
Northern Ireland is set to become the first UK region to adopt graduated driver licensing in October, with measures including a six-month learner period, restrictions on night-time driving and limits on passenger numbers.
Ian Wilson, managing director at CompareNI.com, said "it is disappointing that Northern Ireland has not kept pace with other regions." He described young drivers as "being hit hardest, with some teenagers here facing eye-watering insurance premiums of over £3,150."
Wilson added that graduated driver licensing could, over time, help bring down costs for younger motorists.
