Canadian personal auto insurance premium rates grew by 11.1% on a year-over-year basis during the first quarter of 2026, with Alberta documenting a rate hike nearly double the national average.
Compared to the first quarter of 2025, premium rates rose 21.3% in Alberta, 11.8% in Ontario, 9.6% in the Atlantic provinces, and 4% in Quebec. Despite these annual gains, the national personal auto premium rate index recorded a 0.8% decline relative to the fourth quarter of 2025.
Alberta was the sole region in the personal auto category to register a quarterly increase, rising 7.4%. Conversely, quarter-over-quarter premium rates dropped 0.2% in Ontario, 1.8% in the Atlantic provinces, and 6.5% in Quebec.
The Applied Rating Index measures fluctuations in quoted premium rates rather than the average premium amounts paid by motorists. The data was calculated using over 30 million anonymized quotes per quarter, factoring in the average of the three lowest final premium variations generated for each quoted risk profile. The dataset represents more than 80% of the Canadian brokerage market and incorporates 675 insurer rating plans utilized by brokers.
Year-over-year growth in Ontario decelerated from a 17.1% increase in the fourth quarter of 2025 to an 11.8% increase in the first quarter of 2026.
In contrast, Alberta’s annual growth rate accelerated from 11.1% to 21.3%. Quebec’s annual rate of increase decelerated from 13.4% to 4%, while the year-over-year increase across the Atlantic provinces moderated from 15.4% to 9.6%.
