The share of insurers writing earthquake insurance policies in Missouri rose to 37% in 2025, up from 32% the prior year, as coverage becomes more widely available in a state that faces some of the highest seismic risk in the United States, the state's insurance regulator said.
Three carriers that were not offering earthquake insurance in 2024 began writing policies during the past year, while one insurer exited the market, the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) said. The regulator's public survey data does not identify individual carriers.
Earthquake coverage is not included in standard homeowners' and renters' policies and must be added as an endorsement or purchased separately, the DCI noted.
The expansion also extended to properties in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), a 150-mile fault system that threatens parts of seven states. The share of carriers not offering coverage in the region fell to 14%, from 19% the year prior.
The zone produced a sequence of earthquakes estimated between magnitude 7.0 and 8.0 in the winter of 1811-12, events the Central US Earthquake Consortium has noted were felt more than 1,000 miles away – far beyond the reach of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
The USGS estimates a 25% to 40% chance of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake in the zone within the next 50 years, and a 7% to 10% probability of a repeat of the 1811-12 events in that period.
A 2009 FEMA-funded study projected a major NMSZ earthquake could cause at least $300 billion in direct economic losses and 86,000 casualties.
Missouri's State Emergency Management Agency has warned that seismic risk is amplified by geology, with destruction from a New Madrid event covering more than 20 times the area of a comparable California earthquake.
Despite improved availability, household penetration in Missouri has been on a decade-long slide. In 2014, 18.3% of homeowners carried earthquake insurance, a figure that dropped to 10.4% by 2024, the DCI reported. Fewer than 20% of residents in 101 of the state's 115 counties currently hold a policy.
Some 85% of policies now carry a deductible below 10% of property value, though costs have risen sharply in areas of elevated seismic risk. Premiums in the New Madrid area have climbed 42% since 2015, with the regulator's data showing the average annual premium for a $200,000 home in Caruthersville at $2,134 – versus $398 in St. Louis and $206 in Kansas City.
Low earthquake insurance penetration is not unique to Missouri. Following a magnitude 4.3 earthquake that struck San Francisco in September 2025, reports indicated residential take-up in California remains in the low-to-mid teens.
The California Earthquake Authority's claim-paying resources exceed $20 billion, but the broader protection gap across seismically active states continues to concern regulators.
In a related legislative development, Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill to prohibit double recovery from insurance litigation. The bill's sponsor said the legislation would bring clarity to overlapping insurance payments and subrogation issues.
