Car accident rate by state
Mississippi has the highest rate: 25.6 road deaths per 100,000 residents in 2024, against 11.5 across the United States. Rhode Island has the lowest at 4.7. These are death rates: FARS counts fatal crashes only, so crashes in which nobody died are not in them.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia, ranked by road deaths per 100,000 residents. Click a state for its roads, counties and the rest of its figures.
Road deaths per 100,000 residents and per mile driven, every state, 2024
Rates range from 4.7 per 100,000 in Rhode Island to 25.6 in Mississippi; the US rate is 11.5, and 1.19 per 100 million vehicle-miles. States are ranked by the 2024 rate per resident.
| State | Deaths, 2024 | Per 100,000 2024 | Per 100,000 a year 2015 to 2024 | Per 100 million vehicle-miles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 753 | 25.6 | 23.8 | 1.81 |
| 2 | Arkansas | 603 | 19.5 | 19.3 | 1.53 |
| 3 | New Mexico | 409 | 19.2 | 19.4 | 1.43 |
| 4 | South Carolina | 1,038 | 18.9 | 20.3 | 1.67 |
| 5 | Alabama | 962 | 18.7 | 19.3 | 1.32 |
| 6 | Wyoming | 107 | 18.2 | 21.7 | 1.10 |
| 7 | Montana | 206 | 18.1 | 18.9 | 1.49 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 1,197 | 16.6 | 16.8 | 1.52 |
| 9 | Louisiana | 752 | 16.4 | 17.3 | 1.36 |
| 10 | Arizona | 1,229 | 16.2 | 15.2 | 1.74 |
| 11 | South Dakota | 146 | 15.8 | 14.9 | 1.40 |
| 12 | Oklahoma | 645 | 15.7 | 17.0 | 1.39 |
| 13 | Kentucky | 707 | 15.4 | 17.1 | 1.44 |
| 14 | Missouri | 955 | 15.3 | 15.5 | 1.17 |
| 15 | North Carolina | 1,619 | 14.7 | 14.5 | 1.24 |
| 16 | West Virginia | 256 | 14.5 | 15.2 | 1.49 |
| 17 | Florida | 3,138 | 13.4 | 15.1 | 1.26 |
| 18 | Texas | 4,160 | 13.3 | 13.6 | 1.35 |
| 19 | Nevada | 417 | 12.8 | 11.6 | 1.47 |
| 20 | Maine | 177 | 12.6 | 11.7 | 1.17 |
| 20 | Oregon | 538 | 12.6 | 12.4 | 1.44 |
| 22 | Georgia | 1,403 | 12.5 | 14.8 | 1.15 |
| 22 | Nebraska | 251 | 12.5 | 12.1 | 1.15 |
| 24 | Delaware | 126 | 12.0 | 13.0 | 1.27 |
| 24 | Indiana | 832 | 12.0 | 13.0 | 0.94 |
| 26 | Idaho | 238 | 11.9 | 13.1 | 1.19 |
| 27 | Colorado | 689 | 11.6 | 11.4 | 1.25 |
| 28 | Kansas | 339 | 11.4 | 13.8 | 1.07 |
| 29 | North Dakota | 90 | 11.3 | 13.8 | 0.90 |
| 30 | Iowa | 356 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 1.05 |
| 31 | Michigan | 1,098 | 10.8 | 10.5 | 1.10 |
| 32 | Virginia | 917 | 10.4 | 10.1 | 1.04 |
| 33 | Wisconsin | 595 | 10.0 | 10.2 | 0.86 |
| 34 | California | 3,876 | 9.8 | 10.1 | 1.19 |
| 35 | Ohio | 1,157 | 9.7 | 10.1 | 1.00 |
| 36 | Alaska | 70 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 1.27 |
| 37 | New Hampshire | 133 | 9.4 | 9.0 | 0.96 |
| 38 | Illinois | 1,177 | 9.3 | 9.0 | 1.13 |
| 39 | Maryland | 578 | 9.2 | 9.1 | 1.01 |
| 39 | Washington | 730 | 9.2 | 8.2 | 1.21 |
| 41 | Vermont | 59 | 9.1 | 10.1 | 0.82 |
| 42 | Pennsylvania | 1,127 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 1.18 |
| 43 | Connecticut | 310 | 8.4 | 8.3 | 1.00 |
| 44 | Minnesota | 477 | 8.2 | 7.3 | 0.81 |
| 45 | Utah | 277 | 7.9 | 8.7 | 0.77 |
| 46 | Hawaii | 102 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 0.96 |
| 46 | New Jersey | 670 | 7.1 | 6.7 | 0.84 |
| 48 | District of Columbia | 47 | 6.7 | 4.9 | 1.33 |
| 49 | New York | 1,101 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 0.91 |
| 50 | Massachusetts | 363 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 0.59 |
| 51 | Rhode Island | 52 | 4.7 | 5.6 | 0.68 |
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2024 Annual Report File (released April 2026, subject to revision). How we count
Download the car accident rate by state table as CSV. Free to reuse with credit: “Fatal Crash Data, fatalcrashdata.com/car-accident-rate-by-state/, from NHTSA FARS (2024 Annual Report File).”
Questions about car accident rate by state
- Which state has the highest car accident death rate?
- Mississippi has the highest rate: 25.6 road deaths per 100,000 residents in 2024, against 11.5 across the United States. Rhode Island has the lowest at 4.7. These are death rates: FARS counts fatal crashes only, so crashes in which nobody died are not in them.
- How are the road death rates by state worked out?
- Road deaths in 2024 per 100,000 residents (Census Bureau population estimates, vintage 2024) and per 100 million vehicle-miles (FHWA Highway Statistics 2024, table VM-2). The ten-year rate is deaths from 2015 to 2024 over the summed populations of those years. FARS supplies the deaths; the population and the miles driven come from the Census Bureau and FHWA, and the division is ours. These are the only figures on the site not counted from FARS alone.
- Which state is the safest to drive in?
- By road deaths per resident in 2024, Rhode Island had the lowest rate at 4.7 per 100,000, and Mississippi the highest at 25.6. Rates per resident and per mile driven can rank states differently; both are in the table.
How the road death rates by state are worked out
Road deaths in 2024 per 100,000 residents (Census Bureau population estimates, vintage 2024) and per 100 million vehicle-miles (FHWA Highway Statistics 2024, table VM-2). The ten-year rate is deaths from 2015 to 2024 over the summed populations of those years. FARS supplies the deaths; the population and the miles driven come from the Census Bureau and FHWA, and the division is ours. These are the only figures on the site not counted from FARS alone.
A rate is only given over 10 deaths. Per resident and per mile can rank a state differently: a rural state with long drives has more miles per resident. The full method.