See car insurance rates in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Part of a series on car insurance rates in Ontario.

Fast facts about auto insurance in St. Catharines
Average annual car insurance rate
Regular drivers in the city
Collisions per year (approximately)
%
Collision rate for the city
Average age
Average household income
%
Unemployment rate
Population
Understanding car insurance in St. Catharines, Ontario
St. Catharines, also known as the Garden City, sits right on the southern shore of Lake Ontario and just across the border from Buffalo, New York.
The city enjoys car insurance rates on the lower end of Ontario’s range despite its medium-high collision rate.
Part of that is because the the majority of the workforce doesn’t have to drive very far, which really limits the amount of road exposure (and statistical risk) that underpin auto insurance rates.
Less time on the road correlates to smaller chances of being in a collision.
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Busting myths about driving and insurance in St. Catharines
Myth: You’ll need to commute to Hamilton, Burlington, or Oakville for work.
Wrong. According to Statistics Canada, 58% of St. Catharines workforce drives to work within the city limits. The next 30% commutes outside of the city but within Niagara Region for daily work, and a little over 11% drive outside of Niagara Region. Odds are good that you won’t need to worry about excessive exposure to risk influencing your car insurance rate.
Myth: St. Catharines has to deal with crime overflow from the States.
Some lifelong residents of the city have voiced concerns about following in the footsteps of post-industrial Buffalo just across the border, but the Garden City’s transition has more to do with the job market than crime rates.
Experiencing the same economic transition from manufacturing to service jobs doesn’t make St. Catharines dangerous.
Myth: St. Catharines has serious road maintenance issues
This might have some credibility to it. According to CAA Niagara, 3 of Niagara’s 10 worst roads in 2018 were in St. Catharines:
- Pelham Road
- Ontario Street
- Merritt Street
Myth: St. Catharines isn’t safe, especially downtown.
Actually, St. Catharines sits in the middle of the pack for its overall crime severity index among cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Even better, the city enjoys the third-safest rating for violent crimes among those same cities.
The downtown core could benefit from revitalization, but it’s not a hotbed of crime, either.
How St. Catharines’ rates compare to other cities in Ontario
- North York: $4,261
- Etobicoke: $4,199
- Brampton: $4,071
- Scarborough: $3,825
- East York: $3,605
- Woodbridge: $3,603
- Richmond Hill: $3,579
- Mississauga: $3,473
- Markham: $3,389
- Niagara Falls: $3,321
- Bowmanville: $3,308
- Peterborough: $3,259
- Pickering: $ 3,245
- Newmarket: $ 3,216
- Hamilton: $3,201
- Brantford: $ 3,158
- Maple: $3,150
- Whitby: $3,087
- Ajax: $3,053
- York: $2,999
- Toronto: $2,983
- Barrie: $2,924
- Thornhill: $2,871
- Waterloo: $2,867
- Caledon: $2,780
- London: $2,765
- Fort Erie: $2,720
- Oakville: $2,720
- Sault Ste Marie: $ 2,713
- Kitchener: $2,705
- Milton: $2,680
- St Catharines: $ 2,550
- Windsor: $2,536
- Woodstock: $2,513
- Innisfil: $2,505
- Burlington: $2,476
- Kingston: $ 2,360
- Cambridge: $2,297
- Oshawa: $2,295
- Guelph: $2,268
- Gloucester: $2,256
- Stoney Creek: $2,222
- Nepean: $2,196
- Ottawa: $2,195
- Sudbury: $2,005
- Kanata: $2,002
- Thunder Bay: $1,973
- Wasaga Beach: $1,958
Quick tips on driving and insurance in Hamilton
Steer clear of St. Catharines’ most dangerous intersections.
Reduce your chances of a collision and you’ll protect your auto rates from rising. Avoid these intersections in St. Catharines to do just that:
- Fourth and Martindale
- Welland and Dunkirk
- Ontario and Scott West
- Pelham and St. Paul
Pick an a place to live with a low rate of reported crimes and claims.
Crime exists in every city, and St. Catharines is no exception. Unfortunately, higher crime rates and/or claims in a given area could influence insurance rates for everyone nearby.
That’s why it’s important to pick a place to live that doesn’t affect your rates negatively (home or auto). Try moving to a place in St. Catharines’ North End, Port Dalhousie, or Thorold North.
Watch out for speeding tickets on the QEW.
As part of a new pilot project, the QEW highway is getting a higher speed limit of 110 kilometres per hour. That’s great for commuters, but it also means you can probably expect people to drive 130 km/h instead of 120 km/h.
That could be detrimental to your car insurance rates in the wrong situation. With higher speeds come bigger insurance claims/
Watch out for speeding tickets here, too. Demerit points from speeding tickets affect your car insurance rates negatively.
Sources for fast facts about St. Catharines:
- Statistics Canada, St. Catharines 2016 Census Profile
- Ministry of Transportation, 2016 Road Safety Report
- iHeart Radio Niagara, “Three Niagara roads make CAA’s top ten worst roads list for Ontario”
- St. Catharines Standard, “QEW speed limit between Hamilton and St. Catharines increasing to 110 km/h”
- Niagara This Week, “Correcting Globe story on St. Catharines”
- Niagara Regional Police Service, Crime Reports
- Niagara Independent, “St. Catharines—Niagara one of Canada’s safest metropolitan areas”
- City News, “Speed limit to increase to 110 km/h on 3 sections of 400-series highways in pilot project”
Source for average insurance rates by city:
- Survey of 2,800 auto insurance policy holders in Ontario

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