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Rural and urban crashes

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Rural and urban crashes in these figures are classified by the recorded land-use category of the crash location, not by the home address of the people killed in the event. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System auxiliary land-use field distinguishes known rural or urban locations from unknown land use, and the national table shows their death counts separately rather than discarding records with unknown land use. The figures cover fatal traffic crashes across vehicle types, so the totals do not describe only car accidents involving passenger vehicles or only the people occupying those vehicles.[1][2][3]

Contents

Official definition and data selection

The rural and urban crashes classification follows the land-use field, and the manual identifies the rural and urban coding convention separately from the functional road-class convention in its analytical appendix. For the data years shown, rural and urban are separate recorded categories and unknown land use remains outside both known categories, rather than being automatically assigned to one of them. The rural and urban crashes death counts are sums of fatalities in the corresponding accident records, with unknown-location classifications retained as a separate column in the same national table.[1][2][3]

National figures

For 2020, the rural and urban crashes comparison records 16,340 deaths at rural locations, 22,513 at urban locations and 154 where land use was unknown, with deaths measured by recorded crash location. For 2021, the rural and urban crashes comparison records 17,339 deaths at rural locations, 25,749 at urban locations and 142 where land use was unknown, with deaths measured by recorded crash location. For 2022, the rural and urban crashes comparison records 17,375 deaths at rural locations, 25,216 at urban locations and 130 where land use was unknown, with deaths measured by recorded crash location.[4][5][6]

For 2023, the rural and urban crashes comparison records 16,796 deaths at rural locations, 24,036 at urban locations and 193 where land use was unknown, with deaths measured by recorded crash location. For 2024, the rural and urban crashes comparison records 16,006 deaths at rural locations, 22,905 at urban locations and 343 where land use was unknown, with deaths measured by recorded crash location.[7][8]

National figures[4][5][6][7][8]
YearRural deathsUrban deathsUnknown land use deaths
202016,34022,513154
202117,33925,749142
202217,37525,216130
202316,79624,036193
202416,00622,905343

United States, 50 states and District of Columbia, excluding Puerto Rico. 2024 uses the Annual Report File; earlier FARS years use saved Final Files.

Limits of the term and figures

The rural and urban crashes figures are counts of people killed, not rates adjusted for miles driven, so they do not by themselves compare the risk of a trip through either type of area. NHTSA reports amendments to the 2022 Final File land-use classifications, which changed the rural and urban allocations without changing that year's overall traffic death total in the national data. The rural and urban crashes categories describe recorded crash locations rather than residence, and unknown land use must remain distinguishable when calculating shares of deaths across all locations.[1][2][3]

On related publications

References

  1. abc "Fatality Analysis Reporting System Auxiliary Data Manual, 1982-2019 (DOT HS 813 071)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  2. abc "Fatality Analysis Reporting System Analytical User's Manual, 1975-2024 (DOT HS 813 794)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  3. abc "Overview of motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2024 (DOT HS 813 791, April 2026)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  4. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2020 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  5. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2021 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  6. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2022 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  7. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2023 national data files (Final File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record
  8. ab "Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2024 national data files (Annual Report File)". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Official source. Checked . Source record