IIHS

What IIHS does

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is an independent, nonprofit scientific and educational organization founded in 1959 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with a Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Virginia, where physical crash testing and safety evaluations are conducted. IIHS is wholly supported by auto insurers and insurance associations and operates alongside the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), which provides scientific studies of insurance loss data by vehicle make and model. The organization's stated mission is to reduce deaths, injuries, and property damage from motor vehicle crashes. Vehicle safety ratings are provided to consumers free of charge and the organization is not commercially compensated for its evaluations.

The core technical product is the IIHS Vehicle Ratings System, which evaluates vehicles across multiple categories including moderate overlap front, small overlap front, side impact, roof strength, whiplash prevention, headlight performance, seat belt reminders, LATCH child restraint ease-of-use, and front crash prevention (AEB) systems. Evaluation infrastructure includes Hybrid III and SID-IIs crash test dummies spanning 5th-percentile female to 50th-percentile male body sizes. Ratings are published as Good, Acceptable, Marginal, or Poor, with vehicles meeting the highest cross-category thresholds designated Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+. In 2025-2026, IIHS updated test protocols (Moderate Overlap 2.0, Side Impact 2.0, Front Crash Prevention 2.0) and launched its first commercial vehicle safety ratings program covering cargo vans and heavy-duty pickups, addressing a segment where federal crashworthiness mandates do not apply.

The business model is membership-funded rather than revenue-generating: IIHS-HLDI does not sell ratings or charge consumers, and all operations are funded by member auto insurers and insurance associations who in turn gain access to HLDI loss-data analytics for underwriting and risk assessment. Distribution is primarily free and digital through iihs.org, augmented by an earned-media operation (Cision/MultiVu), a Status Report newsletter, and an active social media presence. Additional products include HLDI insurance loss analytics for member companies and Crash Science in the Classroom, a free STEM educational platform for grades 5-12. In 2025, IIHS launched the 30x30 initiative to reduce U.S. roadway fatalities 30% by 2030.

Name

IIHS

Legal name

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute

Website

https://iihs.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1959

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is an independent nonprofit scientific organization founded in 1959 that conducts vehicle crashworthiness and crash avoidance testing, publishes Top Safety Pick awards, and produces insurance loss data analytics, wholly funded by auto insurers to reduce roadway deaths and injuries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Vehicle Safety Testing and Research

NAICS

Testing Laboratories and Services (541380)

SIC

Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYIMAIACAI

Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) & Inspection Services

Industrials, Manufacturing & Construction/Industrial Services & Facility Operations/Industrial Maintenance & Plant Shutdown Services

Keywords

• Vehicle safety testing
• Crash test ratings
• Highway safety research
• Automotive safety ratings
• Insurance loss analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Ruckersville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

IIHS is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization that conducts rigorous crashworthiness and crash avoidance testing of passenger and commercial vehicles, publishing the results as Good/Acceptable/Marginal/Poor ratings and awarding Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ designations. Through its affiliated Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), it also publishes insurance loss data analytics for member auto insurers. The organization offers free ratings to consumers and free STEM educational resources (Crash Science in the Classroom) for grades 5-12.

Product overview

IIHS operates as a nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths, injuries, and property damage from motor vehicle crashes. The core product is the IIHS Vehicle Ratings system, which provides rigorous crashworthiness and crash avoidance evaluations for passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. The Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards recognize vehicles meeting the highest safety standards. Through the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) division, IIHS provides insurance loss data analytics to the insurance industry. The Crash Science in the Classroom educational platform extends the organization's mission to K-12 education with free STEM resources about vehicle safety science.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• IIHS Vehicle Ratings System

Quantifiable outcome

• IIHS crashworthiness tests have saved nearly 50,000 lives since the program's launch
• +2 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• China New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP): China's vehicle safety rating program managed by CATARC that conducts crash tests and publishes star ratings. C-NCAP is a regional NCAP peer whose large domestic vehicle market makes it strategically important for global OEMs and a parallel testing-and-rating operation to IIHS.
• Latin NCAP: Vehicle safety assessment program covering Latin America and the Caribbean, publishing crashworthiness and safety-assist ratings with support from Global NCAP. Latin NCAP is a regional peer of IIHS with similar mission and methodology but focused on Latin American markets.
• Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP): Australia and New Zealand vehicle safety rating program that publishes 1- to 5-star ratings based on crash and safety-assist tests. ANCAP is a regional NCAP peer with similar test protocols to IIHS and Euro NCAP, serving the Australasian market rather than competing directly in the U.S.
• Korea New Car Assessment Program (KNCAP): Korean vehicle safety rating program that evaluates crashworthiness and active safety for the South Korean market. KNCAP is a regional NCAP peer with comparable test methods and consumer-facing rating structure to IIHS.
• Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP): Japanese government-administered vehicle safety assessment program that evaluates new vehicles for crashworthiness and active safety. JNCAP is a regional NCAP peer that performs functionally equivalent ratings to IIHS in the Japanese domestic market.

Broad incumbents

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): U.S. federal agency that conducts its own New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) crashworthiness and crash-avoidance ratings, sets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and is the direct government counterpart to IIHS. NHTSA is the broadest incumbent in the vehicle-safety testing space; IIHS differentiates by being independent, more rigorous on certain protocols, and able to integrate insurance loss data.
• Global NCAP: Umbrella organization that coordinates regional NCAP programs (Latin NCAP, ANCAP, India, ASEAN, etc.) and campaigns for safer vehicles in emerging markets. Global NCAP is a broad incumbent in the same testing-and-rating space as IIHS, with a more international-development and advocacy mandate rather than a deep U.S. consumer-rating focus.

Others

• UL Solutions (Underwriters Laboratories): Global safety-science company that operates independent testing, inspection, and certification laboratories across product categories. UL is an adjacent testing-and-certification peer whose operating model (industry-funded third-party safety certification) and laboratory infrastructure are structurally similar to IIHS, though its automotive footprint is more focused on components and supply chain rather than whole-vehicle ratings.

Emerging players

• Consumer Reports (Auto Test Program): Independent consumer-product testing organization whose Auto Test program conducts instrumented vehicle testing and integrates crash-test results (often from IIHS) into overall vehicle recommendations. Consumer Reports is an adjacent testing player that distributes IIHS ratings to a large consumer audience and competes in the broader auto-evaluation space.

Direct peers

• European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP): European vehicle safety assessment program that conducts crashworthiness, safety assist, and vulnerable road user evaluations and publishes 1- to 5-star ratings. Euro NCAP is the most direct international peer of IIHS, with overlapping test methodology, similar consumer-facing rating output, and shared influence on global OEM safety engineering.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/IIHS_autosafety
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@iihs-hldi
• Facebookfacebook.com/iihs.org
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/insurance-institute-for-highway-safety
• Instagraminstagram.com/iihs_autosafety
• TikToktiktok.com/@iihs_autosafety

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about IIHS