About 228,200 Americans had a license to operate a motor vehicle in the United States in 2020. That year, an estimated 36,680 people died on U.S. roads. Traffic-related fatalities per 100,000 licensed drivers stood at 17.01 in 2020.

Road safety rankings
The United States has among the highest rates of road fatalities per population worldwide. Possible contributing factors to deaths on the road can include speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and driving while fatigued. Traffic fatalities caused by speeding in the United States have declined since 2008, with less than 10,000 deaths recorded annually over recent years.

Automation for the nation
94 percent of severe automobile crashes are due to human error — but driving safety is taken much more seriously today than in the past, with roughly 90 percent of U.S. drivers wearing their seatbelts while driving in 2020. Over recent years, car manufacturers and developers have striven to reduce car crashes even further with partially and fully automated safety features such as forward collision warnings, lane departure warnings, rearview video systems, and automatic emergency braking. Self-driving vehicles are also set to take to the roads in the future, with car brands such as Toyota, Ford, and GM registering over 350 autonomous driving patents respectively in the United States.

United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Road Motor Vehicles data was reported at 120.615 Ratio in 2019. This records a decrease from the previous number of 123.083 Ratio for 2018. United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Road Motor Vehicles data is updated yearly, averaging 165.059 Ratio from Dec 1994 (Median) to 2019, with 26 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 212.199 Ratio in 1995 and a record low of 118.903 Ratio in 2014. United States US: Road Fatalities: Per One Million Road Motor Vehicles data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ITF: Road Traffic and Road Accident Fatalities: OECD Member: Annual. VEHICLES The stock of road motor vehicles is the number of road motor vehicles registered at a given date in a country and licenced to use roads open to public traffic. This includes road vehicles exempted from annual taxes or licence fee; it also includes imported second-hand vehicles and other road vehicles according to national practices. It should not include military vehicles.; ROAD FATALITIES A road fatality is any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of an injury accident, excluding suicides. A killed person is excluded if the competent authority declares the cause of death to be suicide, i.e. a deliberate act to injure oneself resulting in death. For countries that do not apply the threshold of 30 days, conversion coefficients are estimated so that comparison on the basis of the 30-day definition can be made. VEHICLES A road motor vehicle is a road vehicle fitted with an engine whence it derives its sole means of propulsion, which is normally used for carrying persons or goods or for drawing, on the road, vehicles used for the carriage of persons or goods.; VEHICLES Motor vehicle refers to any motorised (mechanically or electronically powered) road vehicle not operated on rail.

In 2022, over 4.5 million light trucks were involved in U.S. traffic crashes, accounting for 43.2 percent of the overall total. The second highest were passenger cars, being involved in four million car crashes and accounting for 38.1 percent of the total. Motor vehicle crashes are among the leading causes of death among those under the age of 55 in the United States.

The number of road traffic fatalities per one million inhabitants in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 18.5 deaths (+13.81 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the number is estimated to reach 152.46 deaths and therefore a new peak in 2029. Depicted here are the estimated number of deaths which occured in relation to road traffic. They are set in relation to the population size and depicted as deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of road traffic fatalities per one million inhabitants in countries like Mexico and Canada.

United States US: Road Traffic: Motor Vehicle data was reported at 1,307,274.959 Vehicle-km mn in Dec 2024. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,377,611.339 Vehicle-km mn for Sep 2024. United States US: Road Traffic: Motor Vehicle data is updated quarterly, averaging 1,243,437.500 Vehicle-km mn from Mar 2004 (Median) to Dec 2024, with 84 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,381,053.726 Vehicle-km mn in Sep 2019 and a record low of 1,028,295.177 Vehicle-km mn in Jun 2020. United States US: Road Traffic: Motor Vehicle data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ITF: Road Traffic and Road Accident Fatalities: OECD Member: Quarterly. [COVERAGE] Road traffic on national territory is defined as any movement of road vehicle within a national territory irrespective of the country in which these vehicles are registered. [STAT_CONC_DEF] Until 2003, data are not available.

The Motor Vehicle Collisions crash table contains details on the crash event. Each row represents a crash event. The Motor Vehicle Collisions data tables contain information from all police reported motor vehicle collisions in NYC. The police report (MV104-AN) is required to be filled out for collisions where someone is injured or killed, or where there is at least $1000 worth of damage (https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/ny_overlay_mv-104an_rev05_2004.pdf). It should be noted that the data is preliminary and subject to change when the MV-104AN forms are amended based on revised crash details.For the most accurate, up to date statistics on traffic fatalities, please refer to the NYPD Motor Vehicle Collisions page (updated weekly) or Vision Zero View (updated monthly). Due to success of the CompStat program, NYPD began to ask how to apply the CompStat principles to other problems. Other than homicides, the fatal incidents with which police have the most contact with the public are fatal traffic collisions. Therefore in April 1998, the Department implemented TrafficStat, which uses the CompStat model to work towards improving traffic safety. Police officers complete form MV-104AN for all vehicle collisions. The MV-104AN is a New York State form that has all of the details of a traffic collision. Before implementing Trafficstat, there was no uniform traffic safety data collection procedure for all of the NYPD precincts. Therefore, the Police Department implemented the Traffic Accident Management System (TAMS) in July 1999 in order to collect traffic data in a uniform method across the City. TAMS required the precincts manually enter a few selected MV-104AN fields to collect very basic intersection traffic crash statistics which included the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities. As the years progressed, there grew a need for additional traffic data so that more detailed analyses could be conducted. The Citywide traffic safety initiative, Vision Zero started in the year 2014. Vision Zero further emphasized the need for the collection of more traffic data in order to work towards the Vision Zero goal, which is to eliminate traffic fatalities. Therefore, the Department in March 2016 replaced the TAMS with the new Finest Online Records Management System (FORMS). FORMS enables the police officers to electronically, using a Department cellphone or computer, enter all of the MV-104AN data fields and stores all of the MV-104AN data fields in the Department’s crime data warehouse. Since all of the MV-104AN data fields are now stored for each traffic collision, detailed traffic safety analyses can be conducted as applicable.

The number of road accidents per one million inhabitants in the United States was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total 2,490.4 accidents (-14.99 percent). After the eighth consecutive decreasing year, the number is estimated to reach 14,118.78 accidents and therefore a new minimum in 2029. Depicted here are the estimated number of accidents which occured in relation to road traffic. They are set in relation to the population size and depicted as accidents per one million inhabitants.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of road accidents per one million inhabitants in countries like Mexico and Canada.

Around 237.7 million people held valid driving licenses in the United States in 2023. In most U.S. states, the minimum age to be behind the wheel is 16 years old. There are slightly more female licensees than male drivers. Some states are beginning to issue non-binary gender options on their licenses, and digital IDs are expected to become widely adopted soon. Lack of road safety Lax driving tests and lack of training are sometimes sighted as reasons for the high level of road accidents and fatalities in the United States, compared to other countries. The number of people killed in traffic-related accidents reached a peak in 2021 when almost 47,000 people died on U.S. roads. In recent years, the United States has witnessed a slight decrease in road traffic fatalities. The vast majority of accidents are recorded in urban areas, but rural accidents are more likely to be fatal. Automation and aggravation More than half of U.S. drivers say they have been on the receiving end of road-rage. These events may cause traffic accidents or lead to physical assault. It is hoped that vehicle automation will be able to reduce driver error and eliminate road rage. However, self-driving cars are often on the receiving end of violence due to anti-computer animosity from human drivers, and customers report concerns regarding the safety of autonomous cars. However, we can expect to share roads with more self-driving vehicles soon.

A digital record of all Tesla fires - including cars and other products, e.g. Tesla MegaPacks - that are corroborated by news articles or confirmed primary sources. Latest version hosted at https://www.tesla-fire.com.

Since the 1780s, over 25,000 United States law enforcement officers have died while on active duty, or due to injuries and illnesses obtained while on duty. Gunfire is responsible for over half of all total law enforcement deaths recorded, particularly before the 1930s. From this point on, the total share of gunfire deaths has decreased significantly, mostly due to the increase in vehicle or health related deaths, although gunfire has remained the most common individual cause of death in almost every year. Gunfire deaths These deaths rose steadily after the Civil War, and peaked at over 200 annual deaths during the 1920s, due to the increase in criminal activity during prohibition. Because of this, the National Firearms Act of 1934 was introduced in an attempt to reduce gun-related crime, by requiring the registration of any transfer of ownership and imposing a tax on gun manufacturers and distributors. After Prohibition's end and the introduction of these measures, annual law enforcement deaths from gunfire have been well below 100 in almost every year, except for a brief spike in the early 1970s, during the crime wave that began in the 1960s and the beginning of the "War on Drugs". Overall, gunfire deaths of law enforcement have fallen since the 1970s, reaching a low of just 34 deaths in 2013. In contrast, the total number of people killed by police shootings has consistently been above one thousand for most of the past decade.

Increase in health-related deaths

The majority of non-gunfire deaths are a result of vehicle-related accidents, and the number of crashes and accidents rose throughout the 20th century in line with the increase in car ownership. However, the number of deaths from heart attacks and job-related illness has also risen over time, due to the aging of the population and increasingly unhealthy lifestyle trends across the country. In recent decades, additional health issues have emerged that have had a disproportionate impact on law enforcement. In 2001, 72 officers died as a result of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and over 350 additional deaths have been attributed to the adverse health effects (primarily respiratory illnesses) sustained by first responders from law enforcement. From 2020-2022, COVID-19 became the largest single cause of law enforcement deaths. Figures relate to cases where the individual contracted COVID-19 while on duty, and highlights the increased exposure to the virus faced by those considered to be frontline or essential workers. This number is likely to fall in the future as infection rates fall and newer strains of the virus are less lethal.

There were around 33.2 million passenger cars in operation in the United Kingdom in 2022. UK roads have become busier since experiencing the most significant decline in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis. It remains to be seen whether the coronavirus crisis will cause a similar dent in the graph.

Car ownership per household

The majority of car owners in the UK have one car available to them. As of 2018, 53 percent of motorists had one vehicle in their household. Only one percent of respondents owned five cars or more.

Road safety The number of car drivers involved in reported road accidents in Great Britain fell to a record-low of just under 160,000 in 2019. The age group of under 16 year olds witnessed a sharp drop in the number of traffic-related fatalities in 2019. That said, all other age groups reported an increase in fatalities between 2018 and 2019.