Car insurance in South Dakota
Drivers in South Dakota paid $1,158 a year for full coverage in 2023, 20% below the national average. With prices up since, figure on about $1,370 today. In South Dakota, the law asks for at least 25/50/25 liability.
What people pay in South Dakota
A typical yearly price today
about $1,370 a year (about $115 a month)
South Dakota's average full-coverage cost in 2023 was $1,158, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Car insurance prices nationally have risen about 18% since then (government price index, August 2026), so we start from about $1,370.
That makes South Dakota the 12th least expensive of the 50 states and DC. Nationally, the average was $1,439.
It's an average across every kind of driver and car, not your price. Your car, your driving record, and how much coverage you carry move it up or down.
South Dakota next to its neighbors
A typical policy in South Dakota costs more than in Iowa and North Dakota and less than in Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
| State | Typical price, 2023 | Moving to South Dakota from there |
|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | $1,158 | Not a move |
| Iowa | $1,010 | About $200 more a year |
| Minnesota | $1,223 | About $90 less a year |
| Montana | $1,184 | About the same |
| Nebraska | $1,184 | About the same |
| North Dakota | $961 | About $270 more a year |
| Wyoming | $1,180 | About the same |
| National average | $1,439 | Not a move |
The move is the What-if page's starting example: a 40–64-year-old with a clean record and a 2020 Toyota Camry, full coverage, in the suburbs, with nothing else changed. Only the two states' typical prices make the difference, so a real move can come out differently.
The least insurance South Dakota's law asks for
- Liability (per person / per crash / property)
- $25,000 / $50,000 / $25,000
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Not required
- Medical payments
- Not required
- No-fault
- No
- Uninsured motorist
- Required
- Underinsured motorist
- Required
Liability pays for injuries and damage you cause to others, up to these limits. A minimum is the least the law allows, not a recommendation, and it doesn't pay to fix your own car.
Liability-only coverage, the closest NAIC figure to what a minimum policy costs, averaged $378 in South Dakota in 2023 (about $450 today, brought up the same rough way), the 2nd lowest of the 50 states and DC. That's about 33% of the full-coverage price; the rest pays to fix or replace your own car.
South Dakota requires at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for injuries, plus $25,000 for property damage. Every policy must also include uninsured and underinsured-motorist coverage at the same limits as your injury liability.
What we couldn’t confirm: The legislature's statute pages load with JavaScript, so we read the same text through its data feed. We marked PIP and medical payments coverage not required because we found no law requiring them, not because a law says they're optional.
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must each match your injury liability limits, up to $100,000/$300,000 unless you ask for more, and you can't turn them down. At the $25,000/$50,000 minimum, you carry $25,000/$50,000 of each.
- Checked
- September 22, 2026
A new teen driver in South Dakota
Adding a 16-year-old to a typical policy
about $910 more a year
About $75 a month, on one average car with full coverage. The whole policy with the teen: roughly $1,700–$3,000 a year.
On a policy of their own, with the same kind of car, the same teen would pay about $3,940 a year in South Dakota (roughly $3,000–$5,600).
What adding a teen costs comes from California's published prices, so the range is wide, and South Dakota may differ. How adding a teen driver works.
Cars that cost the least to add a teen with
In South Dakota, the 2022 Subaru Forester, Outback, and Crosstrek come out the same, the least of the 33 cars on the site's popular lists to add a teen with: about $810 more a year. At the other end of the same lists, the 2022 Tesla Model 3 costs about $1,360 more a year.
| Car | Added to your policy | On their own policy |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 Subaru Forester | +$810 a year | $3,510 a year |
| 2022 Subaru Outback | +$810 a year | $3,520 a year |
| 2022 Subaru Crosstrek | +$810 a year | $3,540 a year |
| 2022 Honda CR-V | +$870 a year | $3,780 a year |
| 2022 Toyota RAV4 | +$890 a year | $3,840 a year |
The order is the same in every state, because our car data is national. What changes from state to state is the price level.
Why these cars cost less, and what this doesn't cover.
“Try it with your own car” opens your own situation in South Dakota (a 2020 Toyota Camry if you haven't set one) with a new 16-year-old. It starts from that car, not an average one, so its figure can differ from the one above.
Where these numbers come from
- Typical prices: National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), 2022/2023 Auto Insurance Database Report, 2023 data, brought up to today with the government's price index for car insurance.
- The law: South Dakota's own statute or insurance department, listed above with the date we checked it.
- Teen drivers and cars: the same math as the rest of the site. Here's how we got these, and every source.
This is an estimate to help you plan, not a quote. We don't sell insurance, and we never pass your info to anyone. Only an insurer can give you a real price.