Motor-vehicle crashes

The United States counted 39,254 deaths in motor-vehicle crashes on public roads in 2024, according to NHTSA.

In the same crash year, 36,297 fatal crashes. A death is counted where a person died within 30 days of the crash. The file records no cause and assigns no blame.

The crash year

39,254
Deaths: Exact for the nation. A count of people, not a rate.; 36,297
Fatal crashes: 51
States with a crash: 2,825
Counties with a crash

About these figures

Deaths: Exact for the nation. A count of people, not a rate.

What stands out

Five findings. Figures from the 2024 crash year.

39,254 deaths in motor-vehicle crashes on public roads were counted in 2024, in 36,297 fatal crashes. The nation →
A death is a person who died within 30 days of a crash. The file records no cause and assigns no blame.
Texas had the most deaths in motor-vehicle crashes of any state in 2024, 4,160 by count. Texas →
A state with more people and more driving has more crashes, so this is a count and not a rate.
District of Columbia had the fewest deaths in motor-vehicle crashes of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2024, 47 in all. District of Columbia →
A smaller count can come from fewer people or less driving, so it is a count and not a rate.
Los Angeles County had the most deaths in motor-vehicle crashes of any county in 2024, 778 by count. Los Angeles County →
A county is where a crash happened, not where the people lived. The factbook withholds a county count of 1 to 10.
16,006 of the 39,254 deaths in 2024 were in crashes the file places in a rural area, and 22,905 in an urban area. The nation →
The file codes each crash rural or urban by the place it happened. It does not say where the people lived or how far they had driven.

What changed in this release

This is the hub’s first release, retrieved on November 5, 2026: 39,254 deaths in motor-vehicle crashes on public roads, NHTSA in 2024.

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Deaths by state and county

Each state and each county is one row in its ranking. State and national counts print as published. The factbook withholds a county’s count of 1 to 10 deaths, because a small count can identify the people who died, and the row says so. NHTSA suppresses nothing.

Questions

What this data cannot show

A death is counted where a person died within 30 days of a crash on a public road. The file records no cause and assigns no blame.
The factbook withholds a county’s death count of 1 to 10, with its crash counts, and a county’s rural, urban or other-place split of 1 to 10, with all of that county’s splits, because a small count can identify the people who died and a crash count would bound it; NHTSA suppresses nothing. State and national counts are summed from NHTSA’s file and print uncut.
Connecticut, Alaska and South Dakota counties are not matched to the Census county names. They are labeled not matched, and their counts print and are ranked.
These are counts. A state or county with more driving has more crashes, and no population is used on these pages.
These pages hold one crash year, so no figure here is a trend. The population source is not in this hub yet, so no page divides a count by residents.

The full method: How the motor-vehicle crash figures are made.

Everything in this hub

Every page in this topic, by kind.

Questions3

One question per page, answered in the first sentence with the figure.

Rankings2

The states and the counties in one table each, ordered by the deaths in motor-vehicle crashes in the crash year.

Sources

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), national annual files: accident — National Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Public domain — U.S. Government work

Compiled automatically from Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), national annual files: accident by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built

How to cite this page

Cite the page’s address and the date printed on it, and name National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as the source of the figures.

American Factbook. “Motor-vehicle crashes.” Updated November 5, 2026. https://americanfactbook.org/crashes. Source: Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), national annual files: accident, https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars.

Crash year 2024, from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System

Data retrieved November 5, 2026