Cars and Drivers
City In Every State Where the Most People Die In Car Crashes

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An estimated 42,795 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2022, according to preliminary analysis from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This was a 0.3% decline from 2021, when 42,939 people died in 39,508 fatal accidents. While 18,585 of the accidents in 2021 were not in cities, the rest, nearly 21,000 accidents, were, and many of them in large cities.
Most of the time, the largest city in each state, by population, also has the most fatalities from car crashes. But that is not always the case.
To identify the city in every state where the most people die in car crashes, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed roadway fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Of the 5,371 cities nationwide with data, we found the city in each state with the highest number of fatalities. We included the District of Columbia. All other data is from FARS except for population data, which came from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and are five-year estimates for 2022.
Naturally, it is not surprising to find New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and other large cities on the list because they are the most populous in their respective states. However, it is surprising to find other, much smaller cities on the list. They tend to be cities in smaller states such as Idaho, West Virginia, and Vermont. In Maine and North Dakota, too, the third largest city ranks on the list. (Also see, adjusted for vehicle-miles driven, this state has the worst highway fatality rate in America.)
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