NATIONAL RANKING

Deadliest States for Driving

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System, these are all 51 U.S. jurisdictions ranked by road fatality rate per 100,000 residents in the latest complete census year. PlainRoadSafety's September 2026 refresh sorts that published rate from deadliest to safest.

Mississippi
#1 Deadliest State
24.9
Highest rate per 100k

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

Mississippi

#1 deadliest state at 24.9 per 100k residents

12.2

U.S. rate per 100k (2023)

5.1x

Gap between deadliest (MS) and safest (MA) state

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Showing all 51 states.

Top 10 Deadliest States by Fatality Rate

Road deaths per 100,000 population. Higher values indicate more dangerous roads relative to population size.

  1. 1
    Mississippi 25 per 100k
    MS
  2. 2
    Wyoming 25 per 100k
    WY
  3. 3
    New Mexico 21 per 100k
    NM
  4. 4
    South Carolina 20 per 100k
    SC
  5. 5
    Arkansas 19 per 100k
    AR
  6. 6
    Alabama 19 per 100k
    AL
  7. 7
    Tennessee 19 per 100k
    TN
  8. 8
    Montana 18 per 100k
    MT
  9. 9
    Kentucky 18 per 100k
    KY
  10. 10
    Louisiana 18 per 100k
    LA

Source NHTSA FARS · 2023

The bar to make this top 10 list

Where Louisiana's rate (#10) sits among every state and D.C. on PlainRoadSafety

18 Higher risk than most a lower per-capita rate than 18% of 51 states

States and D.C., banded by fatality rate per 100,000 residents

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source NHTSA FARS · 2023

# State Rate / 100K VMT Rate Total Fatalities Latest Year Drunk % Speed % Trend
1 Mississippi (MS) 24.9 1.8 6,303 732 18.7% 14.8% ↑ increasing
2 Wyoming (WY) 24.7 1.5 1,153 144 31.3% 31.0% ↑ increasing
3 New Mexico (NM) 20.7 1.6 3,684 437 23.8% 24.6% ↓ decreasing
4 South Carolina (SC) 19.5 1.7 9,435 1,047 31.1% 41.1% ↓ decreasing
5 Arkansas (AR) 19.4 1.5 5,243 596 24.0% 22.0% ↓ decreasing
6 Alabama (AL) 19.1 1.4 8,643 974 21.9% 26.7% ↔ stable
7 Tennessee (TN) 18.6 1.6 10,379 1,323 24.3% 16.2% ↔ stable
8 Montana (MT) 18.4 1.5 1,840 208 43.5% 33.2% ↓ decreasing
9 Kentucky (KY) 18.0 1.7 6,977 814 23.5% 16.3% ↑ increasing
10 Louisiana (LA) 17.7 1.5 7,293 811 29.5% 19.9% ↓ decreasing
11 Oklahoma (OK) 17.7 1.6 6,127 718 22.5% 21.2% ↔ stable
12 Arizona (AZ) 17.5 1.7 9,706 1,304 20.1% 31.2% ↔ stable
13 Missouri (MO) 16.0 1.2 8,602 991 24.1% 37.4% ↓ decreasing
14 South Dakota (SD) 15.2 1.4 1,177 140 33.4% 28.0% ↑ increasing
15 Florida (FL) 15.0 1.4 29,564 3,396 20.6% 9.9% ↓ decreasing
16 West Virginia (WV) 14.7 1.6 2,470 260 23.1% 25.9% ↓ decreasing
17 Georgia (GA) 14.6 1.3 14,403 1,615 17.3% 18.3% ↓ decreasing
18 North Carolina (NC) 14.4 1.3 13,557 1,561 24.5% 30.2% ↓ decreasing
19 Texas (TX) 14.1 1.4 35,453 4,291 24.9% 25.0% ↓ decreasing
20 Idaho (ID) 14.0 1.4 2,149 275 30.1% 21.7% ↑ increasing
21 Oregon (OR) 13.9 1.6 4,673 587 24.9% 25.4% ↓ decreasing
22 North Dakota (ND) 13.5 1.1 970 106 37.5% 25.5% ↑ increasing
23 Kansas (KS) 13.2 1.2 3,706 387 20.6% 22.2% ↓ decreasing
24 Delaware (DE) 13.1 1.4 1,161 135 25.3% 27.0% ↓ decreasing
25 Indiana (IN) 13.1 1.1 7,935 898 18.9% 15.3% ↓ decreasing
26 Colorado (CO) 12.2 1.3 5,829 720 31.3% 33.2% ↓ decreasing
27 Nevada (NV) 12.2 1.4 3,123 389 25.2% 28.9% ↓ decreasing
28 Iowa (IA) 11.8 1.1 3,119 377 26.0% 20.5% ↑ increasing
29 Nebraska (NE) 11.5 1.1 2,095 227 29.6% 16.7% ↓ decreasing
30 Michigan (MI) 10.9 1.1 9,467 1,094 28.1% 2.6% ↓ decreasing
31 Vermont (VT) 10.7 1.0 584 69 33.6% 32.2% ↓ decreasing
32 Ohio (OH) 10.5 1.1 10,742 1,242 26.6% 19.5% ↓ decreasing
33 Virginia (VA) 10.5 1.0 7,746 913 23.7% 19.7% ↓ decreasing
34 California (CA) 10.4 1.3 35,718 4,061 27.3% 28.9% ↓ decreasing
35 Washington (WA) 10.4 1.4 5,528 810 26.7% 30.7% ↑ increasing
36 Maryland (MD) 10.0 1.1 4,970 621 24.7% 27.8% ↑ increasing
37 Illinois (IL) 9.9 1.2 10,246 1,241 22.9% 28.2% ↓ decreasing
38 Wisconsin (WI) 9.9 0.9 5,361 583 32.7% 30.7% ↓ decreasing
39 Maine (ME) 9.7 0.9 1,416 135 32.4% 28.7% ↓ decreasing
40 New Hampshire (NH) 9.3 1.0 1,098 130 26.2% 36.8% ↓ decreasing
41 Pennsylvania (PA) 9.3 1.2 10,523 1,211 23.3% 31.6% ↑ increasing
42 Connecticut (CT) 8.5 1.0 2,673 308 32.0% 33.1% ↓ decreasing
43 Alaska (AK) 8.2 1.1 651 60 33.2% 37.8% ↓ decreasing
44 Utah (UT) 8.2 0.8 2,547 280 19.6% 28.3% ↓ decreasing
45 Minnesota (MN) 7.1 0.7 3,641 409 26.9% 26.0% ↓ decreasing
46 District of Columbia (DC) 6.5 1.3 288 44 25.7% 45.5% ↑ increasing
47 Hawaii (HI) 6.5 0.9 933 93 33.3% 30.4% ↓ decreasing
48 New Jersey (NJ) 6.5 0.8 5,481 606 22.8% 11.3% ↓ decreasing
49 Rhode Island (RI) 6.5 0.9 549 71 32.2% 19.9% ↑ increasing
50 New York (NY) 5.7 0.9 9,578 1,114 18.1% 6.6% ↓ decreasing
51 Massachusetts (MA) 4.9 0.6 3,303 343 25.0% 25.0% ↓ decreasing

Understanding Fatality Rates

The fatality rate per 100,000 population normalizes crash deaths by state population, enabling fair comparisons between large and small states. A higher rate means more road deaths relative to the number of people living there. The VMT rate (per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) accounts for driving volume, which can provide additional context – a state may have a high per-capita rate partly because its residents drive more miles.

Safest States → ← Rankings Hub

Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Rates are per 100,000 population