What the Data Shows

Lake County, South Dakota recorded 10 total road fatalities across 10 reported crashes during the 2016-2023 reporting window, according to NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The most recent year covered by the data logged 3 deaths on county roads, and the annual average works out to approximately 1.1 fatalities per year. Adjusted for population, the fatality rate is 10.0 per 100,000 residents, which leaves it safer than most U.S. counties by that per-capita measure among the 3,137 U.S. counties in this dataset.

With a small recorded crash count (10), FARS does not publish an individual cause-code breakdown for Lake County, so readers looking for contributing-factor data should use the South Dakota state page, which aggregates county-level case files into statewide totals. Either way, the underlying records are drawn from a census of fatal crashes, not a statistical sample, so the counts are actual deaths rather than estimates.

The directional trend for Lake County is stable, meaning annual counts have stayed within a narrow band relative to the average. Residents, insurers, and policy analysts can use this baseline alongside population density, highway mile data, and rural-versus-urban road mix to judge whether Lake County's 10-death total is proportionate to its exposure. All numbers are for research and informational use only.