Extra credit if you can guess the percentages of 16 and 18 year olds that were getting their licenses in 1983:) 

Answer:

• 25.3% of 16 year olds had their driver's license in 2021 (compared to 46.0% in 1983)
• 59.7% of 18 year olds had their driver's license in 2021 (compared to 80.4% in 1983)

Questions:

• When did you get your driver’s license OR when do you plan to get your license?
• What factors determined/will determine when you get your license?
• Why do you think that fewer 16 and 18 year olds are getting their drivers license today compared to 1983? 
• When it comes to auto insurance, do you think the cost of insuring a 16 year old is higher or lower than insuring an 18 year old? Explain your answer.

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (The Week and Federal Highway Administration 2021 data set):

Getting a driver's license used to be a sign of burgeoning independence for America's teens. That may not be the case anymore. The Washington Post reports that 16- and 17-year-olds are driving much less than their predecessors. "Unlike previous generations, they don't see cars as a ticket to freedom or a crucial life milestone." And that reluctance to get behind the wheel is lasting into young adulthood: Just 80 percent of adults in their early twenties had their licenses in 2020 — down 10 percent from 1997...And The Wall Street Journal in 2019 reported that while nearly half of 16-year-olds were driving in the 1980s, just a quarter were by 2017. The Washington Post, drawing on data from the Federal Highway Administration, suggests the number remained at about 25 percent in 2020.

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Looking for more resources on auto insurance? Here's what the NGPF search tool found. 

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About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.