Crime · Safety
Deadliest States for Driving
American roads killed 39,254 people in 2024. Raw totals mostly measure how big a state is, so the federal standard rates deaths against how much people actually drive: deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. By that yardstick a mile driven in Mississippi is about 3.1 times as likely to kill as a mile driven in Massachusetts. The map and table below rank every state and DC by that rate, with per-capita rates and raw totals one click away.
Updated July 21, 2026Source: NHTSA FARS + FHWA VMT via IIHS
Traffic Deaths by State
Green is safest, red is deadliest per mile driven. The default view is deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled; switch to per-resident rates or raw totals. Hover any state for all its numbers.
State Rankings
Sortable every way: the per-mile rate, raw deaths, total miles driven, the per-capita rate and population. Southern and rural states dominate the deadly end while dense Northeastern states hold the safest rates.
| # | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 1.81 | 753 | 41.6 | 25.6 | 2,943,045 |
| 2 | Arizona | 1.74 | 1,229 | 70.5 | 16.2 | 7,582,384 |
| 3 | South Carolina | 1.67 | 1,038 | 62 | 18.9 | 5,478,831 |
| 4 | Arkansas | 1.53 | 603 | 39.4 | 19.5 | 3,088,354 |
| 5 | Tennessee | 1.52 | 1,197 | 78.9 | 16.6 | 7,227,750 |
| 6 | Montana | 1.49 | 206 | 13.9 | 18.1 | 1,137,233 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 1.49 | 256 | 17.2 | 14.5 | 1,769,979 |
| 8 | Nevada | 1.47 | 417 | 28.4 | 12.8 | 3,267,467 |
| 9 | Kentucky | 1.44 | 707 | 49.2 | 15.4 | 4,588,372 |
| 10 | Oregon | 1.44 | 538 | 37.4 | 12.6 | 4,272,371 |
| 11 | New Mexico | 1.43 | 409 | 28.6 | 19.2 | 2,130,256 |
| 12 | South Dakota | 1.40 | 146 | 10.5 | 15.8 | 924,669 |
| 13 | Oklahoma | 1.39 | 645 | 46.5 | 15.7 | 4,095,393 |
| 14 | Louisiana | 1.36 | 752 | 55.1 | 16.4 | 4,597,740 |
| 15 | Texas | 1.35 | 4,160 | 308.5 | 13.3 | 31,290,831 |
| 16 | District of Columbia | 1.33 | 47 | 3.5 | 6.7 | 702,250 |
| 17 | Alabama | 1.32 | 962 | 72.9 | 18.7 | 5,157,699 |
| 18 | Alaska | 1.27 | 70 | 5.5 | 9.5 | 740,133 |
| 19 | Delaware | 1.27 | 126 | 9.9 | 12.0 | 1,051,917 |
| 20 | Florida | 1.26 | 3,138 | 249.5 | 13.4 | 23,372,215 |
| 21 | Colorado | 1.25 | 689 | 55.1 | 11.6 | 5,957,493 |
| 22 | North Carolina | 1.24 | 1,619 | 131 | 14.7 | 11,046,024 |
| 23 | Washington | 1.21 | 730 | 60.6 | 9.2 | 7,958,180 |
| 24 | California | 1.19 | 3,876 | 326 | 9.8 | 39,431,263 |
| 25 | Idaho | 1.19 | 238 | 20 | 11.9 | 2,001,619 |
| 26 | Pennsylvania | 1.18 | 1,127 | 95.2 | 8.6 | 13,078,751 |
| 27 | Maine | 1.17 | 177 | 15.2 | 12.6 | 1,405,012 |
| 28 | Missouri | 1.17 | 955 | 81.8 | 15.3 | 6,245,466 |
| 29 | Georgia | 1.15 | 1,403 | 122.2 | 12.5 | 11,180,878 |
| 30 | Nebraska | 1.15 | 251 | 21.9 | 12.5 | 2,005,465 |
| 31 | Illinois | 1.13 | 1,177 | 104.3 | 9.3 | 12,710,158 |
| 32 | Michigan | 1.10 | 1,098 | 99.7 | 10.8 | 10,140,459 |
| 33 | Wyoming | 1.10 | 107 | 9.7 | 18.2 | 587,618 |
| 34 | Kansas | 1.07 | 339 | 31.7 | 11.4 | 2,970,606 |
| 35 | Iowa | 1.05 | 356 | 33.8 | 11.0 | 3,241,488 |
| 36 | Virginia | 1.04 | 917 | 88.5 | 10.4 | 8,811,195 |
| 37 | Maryland | 1.01 | 578 | 57 | 9.2 | 6,263,220 |
| 38 | Connecticut | 1.00 | 310 | 30.9 | 8.4 | 3,675,069 |
| 39 | Ohio | 1.00 | 1,157 | 116 | 9.7 | 11,883,304 |
| 40 | Hawaii | 0.96 | 102 | 10.6 | 7.1 | 1,446,146 |
| 41 | New Hampshire | 0.96 | 133 | 13.9 | 9.4 | 1,409,032 |
| 42 | Indiana | 0.94 | 832 | 88.2 | 12.0 | 6,924,275 |
| 43 | New York | 0.91 | 1,101 | 120.9 | 5.5 | 19,867,248 |
| 44 | North Dakota | 0.90 | 90 | 10 | 11.3 | 796,568 |
| 45 | Wisconsin | 0.86 | 595 | 69.2 | 10.0 | 5,960,975 |
| 46 | New Jersey | 0.84 | 670 | 79.5 | 7.1 | 9,500,851 |
| 47 | Vermont | 0.82 | 59 | 7.2 | 9.1 | 648,493 |
| 48 | Minnesota | 0.81 | 477 | 59.2 | 8.2 | 5,793,151 |
| 49 | Utah | 0.77 | 277 | 36.2 | 7.9 | 3,503,613 |
| 50 | Rhode Island | 0.68 | 52 | 7.7 | 4.7 | 1,112,308 |
| 51 | Massachusetts | 0.59 | 363 | 62 | 5.1 | 7,136,171 |
# ranks all 50 states and DC by deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2024, deadliest first; the rank stays fixed while you sort. The color chip matches the map. Click any column header to sort.
Methodology
The headline metric is motor vehicle crash deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the federal standard for road risk. Per-capita rates punish states where people drive a lot and flatter states where they do not; dividing by miles driven instead measures the danger of each mile behind the wheel. A state can rank very differently on the two scales, which is why the table shows both.
Deaths are from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a census of every U.S. crash on a public road that kills someone within 30 days. Vehicle miles traveled are from the Federal Highway Administration's Highway Statistics series and populations are U.S. Census Bureau estimates. We ingest the three through the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's state-by-state compilation, which publishes them in one table. Before the data ships we verify that every published rate equals deaths divided by VMT.
2024 is the most recent complete FARS year. Rates cover the 50 states and DC; the U.S. total in the summary cards includes all of them. Data refreshes annually when NHTSA releases the next FARS year.
Sources
- IIHS Fatality Facts: State by State. One-table compilation of FARS deaths, FHWA mileage and Census population per state.
- NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). The federal census of fatal motor vehicle crashes.
- FHWA Highway Statistics. Annual vehicle miles traveled by state (table VM-2).