U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for February 26

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

CAR INSURANCE

Profile America — Thursday, February 26th. Car insurance is both required and a major item in the budget of many households. The idea of insuring cars against accidents began this month in 1898 when the Traveler's Insurance Company issued a policy to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo. His policy cost $12.25 and gave him $5,000 in coverage. Martin was chiefly concerned about accidents between his automobile — one of fewer than 4,000 in the entire country at the time — and horses, which numbered about 18 million on farms alone. Now, cars and trucks vastly outnumber horses. There are nearly 15,000 property and casualty insurance firms in the U.S., and nearly $80 billion worth of insurable automotive assets are manufactured annually. You can find more facts about America's people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at www.census.gov.

Sources:
Policy issue: Kane's Famous First Facts, 4519
19^th Century autos and horses: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 520, 716, 1208
Insurance carriers/NAICS 5241: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ECN_2012_US_52I1&prodType=table
Automobile manufacturing/ NAICS 336111: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ASM_2011_31GS101&prodType=table

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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