Counting deaths per person leaves out how much people drive. The rate NHTSA publishes divides deaths by the miles driven on US roads, using the Federal Highway Administration's estimates. In 2024, 39,254 people died over about 3.29 trillion miles: 1.19 deaths for every 100 million miles driven.
| Category | Deaths per 100 million miles |
|---|---|
| 1975 | 3.35 |
| 1976 | 3.25 |
| 1977 | 3.26 |
| 1978 | 3.26 |
| 1979 | 3.34 |
| 1980 | 3.35 |
| 1981 | 3.17 |
| 1982 | 2.76 |
| 1983 | 2.58 |
| 1984 | 2.57 |
| 1985 | 2.47 |
| 1986 | 2.51 |
| 1987 | 2.41 |
| 1988 | 2.32 |
| 1989 | 2.17 |
| 1990 | 2.08 |
| 1991 | 1.91 |
| 1992 | 1.75 |
| 1993 | 1.75 |
| 1994 | 1.73 |
| 1995 | 1.73 |
| 1996 | 1.69 |
| 1997 | 1.65 |
| 1998 | 1.58 |
| 1999 | 1.55 |
| 2000 | 1.53 |
| 2001 | 1.51 |
| 2002 | 1.51 |
| 2003 | 1.48 |
| 2004 | 1.44 |
| 2005 | 1.46 |
| 2006 | 1.42 |
| 2007 | 1.36 |
| 2008 | 1.26 |
| 2009 | 1.15 |
| 2010 | 1.11 |
| 2011 | 1.10 |
| 2012 | 1.14 |
| 2013 | 1.10 |
| 2014 | 1.08 |
| 2015 | 1.15 |
| 2016 | 1.19 |
| 2017 | 1.17 |
| 2018 | 1.14 |
| 2019 | 1.11 |
| 2020 | 1.34 |
| 2021 | 1.38 |
| 2022 | 1.34 |
| 2023 | 1.26 |
| 2024 | 1.19 |
Vehicle miles traveled from the Federal Highway Administration (Highway Statistics VM-1 and VM-2).
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The long fall
In 1975 the rate was 3.35 deaths per 100 million miles. It fell below 2 in 1991 and below 1.5 in 2003, and reached its lowest point, 1.08, in 2014. That is 68% lower than in 1975.
Over the same years the number of miles driven more than doubled, from 1.33 trillion in 1975 to 3.02 trillion in 2014, while deaths fell from 44,525 to 32,744. NHTSA and others point to many factors behind the decline; this data shows the change, not its causes.
The jump in 2020
The rate edged up after 2014, to 1.19 in 2016, and was 1.11 in 2019.
2020 broke the pattern. Miles driven fell 11.0%, from 3.26 trillion to 2.90 trillion, but deaths rose 7.3%, from 36,355 to 39,007. The rate jumped from 1.11 to 1.34, the largest one-year rise in the series. It rose again to 1.38 in 2021, the highest since 2006, as deaths reached 43,230.
It has fallen each year since: 1.34 in 2022, 1.26 in 2023 and 1.19 in 2024, the same as in 2016. Miles driven in 2024 were the most in the series, 1.0% more than in 2019, while deaths were 8.0% higher than in 2019.
States per mile and per person
For most states the two rates tell a similar story. Mississippi had the highest rate on both measures in 2024: 25.5 deaths per 100,000 people and 1.81 per 100 million miles. Arizona (1.74) and South Carolina (1.67) were next per mile. Massachusetts had the lowest rate per mile, 0.59, followed by Rhode Island (0.68) and Utah (0.77); Massachusetts and Rhode Island also had the two lowest rates per person.
The gap between the two comes down to how many miles are driven in a state for each person who lives there, and that varies widely. Nationally, about 9,700 miles were driven for each resident in 2024. In Wyoming it was about 16,600; in New York, about 6,000.
| 2024 | Deaths | Per 100,000 people | Per 100 million miles | Miles driven per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 39,254 | 11.5 | 1.19 | 9,700 |
| Mississippi | 753 | 25.5 | 1.81 | 14,100 |
| Wyoming | 107 | 18.2 | 1.10 | 16,600 |
| Missouri | 955 | 15.3 | 1.17 | 13,100 |
| Indiana | 832 | 12.0 | 0.94 | 12,700 |
| Alaska | 70 | 9.5 | 1.27 | 7,500 |
| Washington | 730 | 9.2 | 1.21 | 7,600 |
| District of Columbia | 47 | 6.8 | 1.33 | 5,100 |
| New York | 1,101 | 5.5 | 0.91 | 6,000 |
| Massachusetts | 363 | 5.1 | 0.59 | 8,700 |
Higher per person, lower per mile. Wyoming had the sixth-highest rate per person in 2024, more than one and a half times the national rate, but 1.10 deaths per 100 million miles, below the national 1.19. Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, Nebraska and Maine were also above the national rate per person and below it per mile. Wyoming's deaths fell by about a quarter in 2024, but the pattern holds over 2020–2024 combined: 21.4 per 100,000, second only to Mississippi, and 1.26 per 100 million miles, against 12.3 and 1.30 for the nation.
Low per person, closer to average per mile. New York's rate per person, 5.5, was less than half the national rate, but per mile, at 0.91, it was only 24% below. The District of Columbia, Alaska and Washington went further in 2024: below the national rate per person but above it per mile. With few deaths their rates move a lot from year to year, though, and over 2020–2024 all three were below the national per-mile rate.
The chart below ranks states by deaths per person, for comparison with the per-mile figures above.
| Category | Deaths per 100,000 |
|---|---|
| Mississippi | 25.5 |
| Arkansas | 19.5 |
| New Mexico | 19.2 |
| South Carolina | 18.9 |
| Alabama | 18.6 |
| Wyoming | 18.2 |
| Montana | 18.1 |
| Tennessee | 16.5 |
| Louisiana | 16.3 |
| Arizona | 16.3 |
| South Dakota | 15.8 |
| Oklahoma | 15.7 |
| Kentucky | 15.4 |
| Missouri | 15.3 |
| North Carolina | 14.7 |
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Rural and urban roads
FHWA splits miles driven between rural and urban roads, and FARS records whether each fatal crash was on a rural or urban road. In 2024, rural roads carried 31.1% of the miles driven but 41.1% of the deaths where the location was recorded: 1.56 deaths per 100 million miles on rural roads, against 1.01 on urban roads.
Over 2020–2024 the rural rate was 1.69 and the urban rate 1.11, about one and a half times as high. The rural rate was between 1.4 and 1.6 times the urban rate in every one of those years. Both have fallen since 2021, from 1.76 to 1.56 on rural roads and from 1.20 to 1.01 on urban roads.
About these figures
Miles driven are the Federal Highway Administration's estimates from Highway Statistics (tables VM-1 and VM-2, and VM-201 for national miles before 1980): for the nation from 1975 and for states from 1980. They are estimates built from traffic counts, and FHWA revises them, so per-mile rates can change slightly when new tables are published. A per-mile rate compares deaths with the miles driven on a place's roads, by residents and visitors alike; a per-person rate compares them with the people who live there, from US Census Bureau estimates (for states, from 2000). Rural and urban rates use FARS's rural or urban code for the crash location and FHWA's rural and urban miles, which are classified separately and may not match exactly; 962 deaths in 2020–2024, 343 of them in 2024, had no rural or urban code and are left out. How rates are calculated