Kak Iki/Getty Images Add Jalopnik on Google: Google Discover Car insurance remains one of the biggest expenses for drivers. However, just how big a cost it is to you as a car owner varies wildly depending on factors such as your location, the type of vehicle you want to insure, as well as your age and driving history. While you can decide — for the sake of saving some money — to live in one of America's cheapest states to insure a car or even pick a car brand that's cheap to insure, you don't really have a way of mitigating your insurance costs when it comes to your age. Despite your inability to control your age (time just marches on, right?), it's a large factor in your insurance premiums. And while there may be opinions and anecdotes about certain age groups paying higher rates, the data leans pretty strongly in one direction. Younger drivers typically pay more for car insurance than any other age group, with teenagers facing the highest premiums. While senior drivers are more likely to get into accidents than experienced and middle-aged drivers in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, experts say they pose less of a risk than younger drivers under 25. And insurance premiums are all about risk. How much is car insurance for young drivers? Михаил Руденко/Getty Images If you're a young driver and are shopping for car insurance, you'll pay roughly two to four times what a driver in their fifty pays. Forbes analysis shows that 16-year-olds face the highest premiums, at $9,561 on average per year in the United States — 305% higher than the cost of insuring at 40 years old. As you get older and gain experience on the road, the risk you carry reduces, thus the amount drops accordingly. The average cost for insurance is $7,592 per year by age 17, and $6,779 by the time you turn 18. The cost then falls to $5,227 by age 19 and to $4,774 once you turn 20. By this point, the reduction in premiums becomes gentler and continues until it reaches $2,842 at age 25. Interestingly, young male drivers are typically more expensive to insure in states where insurers take gender into account (doing so is illegal in California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania). That's because they have many more accidents than young female drivers. Per Experian, the average policy costs $3,428 for male drivers aged 16-20, compared to $3,207 for females of similar age. And while the gap changes, it's virtually always more expensive to insure male drivers than female drivers, regardless of age. For their part, insurance premiums for elderly drivers aged between 70-79 years were much lower by comparison, even if they are more likely to make certain dangerous mistakes that could lead to serious consequences. According to the very same Experian data above, senior male drivers pay $1,888, with females being subjected to $1,782. At 80 or above, male drivers pay an even lower average premium of $1,954, while female drivers pay an average of $1,749. Meanwhile, according to Forbes' analysis, 70-year-olds currently face average annual premiums of $2,302, with individuals in the 80-plus age group paying $2,823 for their policies. It's all about the numbers Fangxianuo/Getty Images As mentioned earlier, young drivers tend to pay higher car insurance premiums because insurers see them as a higher risk than older people. This isn't just some assumption based on the driver's years of experience either — it's based on data. Per mile driven, young drivers aged 16-19 are four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than all drivers aged over 20, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The IIHS notes that teen drivers are a particular risk because of their immaturity and a bit of hubris. Young drivers tend to overestimate their own driving abilities and, at the same time, underestimate the dangers on the road. Young drivers' immaturity is apparent in risky driving practices such as speeding. At the same time, teenagers' lack of experience behind the wheel makes it difficult for them to recognize and respond to hazards. While factors like reaction time and vision might come to mind when thinking about what impairs older drivers, it turns out that they're actually much less likely to get in an accident, especially a fatal one. Naturally, the response for insurance companies is to charge the riskier of the two age groups more money.