RANKINGS

Road Fatality Rankings

US states ranked by fatality rates, causes, and trends from NHTSA FARS. Compare states by fatality rate, drunk driving share, and more.

Download the FARS state extract cited on this page: fars-state-fatality-statistics.csv (NHTSA FARS · CC BY 4.0).

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Deadliest States

States ranked by highest fatality rate per 100K population

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Safest States

States ranked by lowest fatality rate per 100K population

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Cause Breakdown

Fatality breakdowns by contributing factor

State Fatality Changes

Which states recorded the largest annual increases and decreases in FARS fatalities

According to NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, Mississippi recorded the highest fatality rate at 24.9 per 100,000 residents, while Massachusetts recorded the lowest at 4.9. See our methodology for how these per-capita rates are computed across the 51-state, 2015-2023 FARS census.

Top 10 Deadliest States

Full list →
# State Rate / 100K Total Fatalities Trend
1 Mississippi 24.9 6,303 ↑ increasing
2 Wyoming 24.7 1,153 ↑ increasing
3 New Mexico 20.7 3,684 ↓ decreasing
4 South Carolina 19.5 9,435 ↓ decreasing
5 Arkansas 19.4 5,243 ↓ decreasing
6 Alabama 19.1 8,643 ↔ stable
7 Tennessee 18.6 10,379 ↔ stable
8 Montana 18.4 1,840 ↓ decreasing
9 Kentucky 18.0 6,977 ↑ increasing
10 Louisiana 17.7 7,293 ↓ decreasing

Top 10 Safest States

Full list →
# State Rate / 100K Total Fatalities Trend
1 Massachusetts 4.9 3,303 ↓ decreasing
2 New York 5.7 9,578 ↓ decreasing
3 District of Columbia 6.5 288 ↑ increasing
4 Hawaii 6.5 933 ↓ decreasing
5 New Jersey 6.5 5,481 ↓ decreasing
6 Rhode Island 6.5 549 ↑ increasing
7 Minnesota 7.1 3,641 ↓ decreasing
8 Alaska 8.2 651 ↓ decreasing
9 Utah 8.2 2,547 ↓ decreasing
10 Connecticut 8.5 2,673 ↓ decreasing

By Cause

All causes →

Unrestrained Occupants

37.3%

130,380 fatalities

Alcohol-Impaired Driving

24.5%

85,664 fatalities

Weather-Related

23.8%

83,147 fatalities

Speeding

23.2%

81,058 fatalities

Pedestrian Fatalities

16.9%

59,237 fatalities

Distracted Driving

9.1%

31,739 fatalities

Cyclist Fatalities

2.4%

8,397 fatalities

Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Rankings are based on per-capita fatality rates