Download the FARS state extract cited on this page: fars-state-fatality-statistics.csv (NHTSA FARS · CC BY 4.0).
INTERACTIVE TOOLS
Road Safety Tools
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System, PlainRoadSafety's September 2026 refresh compares road fatality risk across U.S. states and counties using FARS joined with Census population and FHWA vehicle-miles-traveled.
- 12.2
- U.S. rate · 2023
- 51
- state profiles
- 3,137
- county profiles
- 5.1×
- highest-to-lowest spread
What you can look up
This toolkit compares 3,137 county profiles and 51 state profiles against a U.S. fatality rate of 12.2 per 100k (2023). The highest-rate state is 5.1× the lowest; use the route lookup to place any locality on that scale.
- 12.2
- U.S. rate · 2023
- 51
- state profiles
- 3,137
- county profiles
- 5.1×
- highest-to-lowest spread
Source: NHTSA FARS joined with Census population. Historical reference rates, not a trip-risk prediction.
What the road-safety lookup can return
2023 data vintage3,188 place profiles available for comparison in the current FARS release, spanning 349,812 reported fatalities across the state records.
Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Rates pair FARS fatalities with U.S. Census population estimates · 2023
Safety by Route lookup
Select any U.S. state to see its fatality rate, total fatalities, and cause breakdown compared to the national average.
Open the lookup tool →National Reference
Use these baseline numbers to interpret any county or state page on PlainRoadSafety.
| Reference value | Latest year |
|---|---|
| U.S. fatality rate | 12.2 per 100K residents (2023) |
| Total state-level fatalities (2015-2023) | 349,812 |
| States covered | 51 |
| Counties covered | 3,137 |
Lowest fatality rates (5 states)
- 1. Massachusetts 4.9 / 100K
- 2. New York 5.7 / 100K
- 3. District of Columbia 6.5 / 100K
- 4. Hawaii 6.5 / 100K
- 5. New Jersey 6.5 / 100K
Highest fatality rates (5 states)
- 1. Mississippi 24.9 / 100K
- 2. Wyoming 24.7 / 100K
- 3. New Mexico 20.7 / 100K
- 4. South Carolina 19.5 / 100K
- 5. Arkansas 19.4 / 100K
How to compare a place to the national baseline
- Find the location's per-100K fatality rate on its state page or county page.
-
Divide that rate by the U.S. rate (12.2) to get a relative-risk multiplier:
- 1.0× means the location matches the national baseline.
- 2.0× means double the national average risk per resident.
- 0.5× means half the national average risk per resident.
- For per-VMT comparisons (which control for how much driving happens), see the methodology page on how PlainRoadSafety joins FARS, Census, and FHWA data.
Source datasets
- NHTSA FARS (raw fatality census) - annual coded files covering every fatal motor vehicle crash since 1975.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program - denominators for per-100K rate calculations.
- FHWA Traffic Volume Trends (VMT) - denominators for per-100M-vehicle-mile risk calculations.
These are reference tools for research and informational purposes only. PlainRoadSafety does not provide insurance, legal, or safety-engineering advice. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), U.S. Census Bureau, FHWA.
Source and method. PlainRoadSafety is rendered directly from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). PlainRoadSafety aggregates published FARS records and does not invent a fatality count the census does not report. This page draws directly on NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our Editorial & Corrections Policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or Report a correction. Data current as of September 2026.