Iowa Car Insurance Minimum Requirements
Iowa requires at least 20/40/15 liability coverage. That is $20,000 for injuries to one person, $40,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage.
- Shorthand
- 20/40/15
These limits have applied to every accident on or after January 1, 1983 and have not been raised since. The 2022 Code correction act only struck the obsolete 1981–1982 tier from the statute; it did not change the current figures (Iowa Code § 321A.21(2)(b); § 321A.1(11)).
- Bodily injury — per person
- $20,000
- Bodily injury — per accident
- $40,000
- Property damage
- $15,000
- Uninsured / underinsured motorist
- Included at 20/40 unless you reject it in writing
Every Iowa liability policy must include uninsured, hit-and-run and underinsured motorist coverage with bodily injury limits of at least $20,000 / $40,000. The named insured may reject any or all of it, but only by a written rejection signed on a separate sheet containing nothing else (Iowa Code § 516A.1).
- Personal injury protection (PIP)
- Not required
Iowa has no personal injury protection. State law requires liability coverage and the uninsured/underinsured motorist offer, and nothing more; medical payments coverage is optional.
Iowa sets $15,000 — higher than 11 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.
How Iowa compares with every other state
What these numbers buy you
Those first two numbers are two different walls, and drivers regularly mistake them for one. $20,000 is the most the policy pays for any single person's injuries. $40,000 is the ceiling for everyone hurt in the same crash put together. Injure one person badly and $20,000 is all your insurer owes, however large the bill. Injure three people and they divide $40,000 between them. Anything a court awards above those lines is yours to pay, and it does not go away when the policy runs out.
The $15,000 of property damage cover is the figure drivers look at last and need first. It pays for what you hit — the other car, a guardrail, a storefront — and nothing else. Only 11 states on this site set a lower floor. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $15,000 is not covered by this policy, and the difference is a debt in your name rather than your insurer's.
None of this is what Iowa drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $313 in 2023, 50th highest of 51 states and DC — and that average covers policies far above the legal floor, not the bare minimum on this page.
Carrying the minimum is legal, not safe. It is the line below which Iowa will not let you drive — and the penalties for falling under it are on the driving uninsured page.
Common questions
Is uninsured motorist coverage required in Iowa?
Included at 20/40 unless you reject it in writing.
Is PIP required in Iowa?
Not required.
Is full coverage required in Iowa?
No. Collision and comprehensive — the two coverages people usually mean by "full coverage" — are not part of what Iowa law requires. A lender or leasing company will usually require them until the car is paid off.
Why the rule looks like this
- What Changed in 2026Liability minimums doubled in Hawaii, two states dropped pure comparative fault, New Hampshire stopped inspecting cars, and three crash reporting thresholds moved — a dated account of the 2026 changes, and the ones already signed for 2027 and beyond.
- Fifteen Thousand Dollars, or Two Hundred and Fifty ThousandThe legal minimum for injuring one person in a crash ranges from $15,000 in Pennsylvania to $250,000 in Michigan — and in Florida there is no bodily injury requirement at all.
More on Iowa
Checked against the primary sources above on September 27, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.