Average Miles Driven in a Year

The average car racks up anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 miles per year. To find your vehicle’s average car mileage per year, divide the number on your odometer by the car’s age.¹

By State

Collectively, people in the U.S. drive a total of 2,903,622,000 miles per year, or nearly 3 trillion miles, according to the most recent publicly available data from the Federal Highway Administration. See how many miles were driven in your state below.

States Whose Drivers Drive the Most

Not surprisingly, the states with the highest number of licensed drivers tend to have more driving. California, for example, had the highest number of licensed drivers in 2016, with over 26 million. It’s also the state where people drove the most, not only due to California’s large population, but also its lack of public transportation.

States With the Most Driving

• California
• Texas
• Florida
• Georgia
• North Carolina

States Whose Drivers Drive the Least

Conversely, smaller states and areas with lower populations of licensed drivers usually have the least driving. D.C., for example, had the second-least number of licensed drivers in 2016, beat only by Wyoming, and unsurprisingly had the least amount of driving.

States With the Least Driving

• Washington, D.C
• Alaska
• Vermont
• Rhode Island
• Delaware²

What factors affect how much you drive? It’s not only your work commute, but also your age and sex, according to the hard numbers.

Commute

Commuting miles are the distance someone travels to and from their workplace.³ In 2019, the last time the U.S. Census Bureau posted this data publicly, the average one-way commute was 27.6 minutes, or about half an hour. However, the plurality of commutes, 15 percent, were between 15 and 19 minutes long.⁴

People with longer commutes usually drive more miles, so your travel time to and from work will likely affect your annual mileage.

The more miles you drive per year, the higher your insurance premium will be. However, unless you’ve signed up for a usage-based insurance program like Allstate Drivewise, mileage is not the only factor auto insurance companies take into account when determining rates. It’s just one factor, combined with your driving history, home address, vehicle type, and more. Still, how many miles you drive per year will have an effect on the cost of your car insurance.

What’s Considered Low Mileage?

Since most people drive about 10,000 miles annually, low mileage is around 7,500 miles or less.

Low-Mileage Discounts

If you’re a low-mileage driver, you can get discounts by enrolling in a usage-based insurance program. With some of these programs, you’ll get a discount just for signing up, plus bigger discounts if you have low mileage and drive safely.

When enrolled in one of these programs, your mileage will be tracked with either an app or a physical device installed in your car. Along with mileage, some of these programs track driving behaviors like hard braking, rapid acceleration, and distracted driving. The less you drive and the safer you drive, the more you’ll save.

Along with usage-based programs, there are also insurance companies that run entirely on a pay-per-mile model, such as Metromile and Root. Thanks to this structure, these insurers have the lowest average annual prices of any company we’ve tested: $662 and $829, respectively. Always compare auto insurance quotes between providers to find out how much you can save by driving fewer miles.

So, what is your mileage? There are two ways to find out.

1. Track your mileage for a month. Track your mileage for a month using your odometer, then multiply the number by 12 to get your annual mileage. Of course, this result could be a bit skewed if you took any vacations by car in the past year and consequently drove more than usual.
2. Check maintenance records. Compare your mileage on your car’s scheduled maintenance reports a year apart from each other.

You can lower the cost of your auto insurance by driving less, especially if you participate in a usage-based program. Learn more about average miles driven per year in our frequently asked questions below.