CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · North Carolina

Fatal crash rate in Union County, North Carolina

Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in Union County, North Carolina, 2020 to 2024, divided by the people who live there. Fatal crashes only: not injuries, not all crashes, not traffic in general.

Union County, North Carolina2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

9.1fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 24 fatal crashes in Union County, North Carolina, where 263,704 people lived. That is 9.1 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 24 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 8.5.

The road is a scale of fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024, 0 to 40. The yellow post is Union County; the white posts are North Carolina and the United States.

Per 100,000
24 fatal crashes ÷ 263,704 residents × 100,000 = 9.1
Five-year
107 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 1,254,867 resident-years × 100,000 = 8.5
Same year
North Carolina: 1,509 ÷ 11,052,061 = 13.7 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000
20201717239,6157.1
20212124244,4598.6
20222528249,61510.0
20232021257,4747.8
20242424263,7049.1

2024 is NHTSA’s Annual Report File and will be revised when the final file replaces it. Populations are July 1 estimates, Census Vintage 2025.

What the record says about those crashes, 2020 to 2024

Every figure is a count of the 107 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Union County, North Carolina over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate00%
Other freeway or expressway11%
Other principal arterial2120%
Minor arterial1918%
Major collector3028%
Minor collector87%
Local road2826%
Unknown or not reported00%
Rural5551%
Urban5249%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am2221%
6 am to 11:59 am2120%
Noon to 5:59 pm3129%
6 pm to 11:59 pm3331%
Hour unknown00%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight5148%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)4239%
Dark, lighted77%
Dawn or dusk77%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear8378%
Cloudy98%
Rain98%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain00%
Fog, smog or smoke66%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported00%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian109%
A bicyclist or other cyclist33%
A speeding-related vehicle3936%
A driver police reported as drinking2019%
Most-named roadsCrashes
US-7418
SR-2187
US-6016
SSR-1005 LANDSFORD RD4
US-601 CONCORD HWY4

Road type is FARS FUNC_SYS; speeding is any vehicle coded SPEEDREL 2 to 5; drinking is any driver coded DRINKING = 1 (police-reported, not a blood-alcohol test). Road names are the trafficway strings as the police coded them, counted as written, so the same road can appear under two spellings.

How this is counted

  • Fatal crashes are rows in NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) file FARS2024NationalCSV.zip, accident.csv, one row per crash on a public road in which someone died within 30 days. Deaths are the FATALS field. Counties are the FARS STATE and COUNTY codes joined to Census FIPS codes.
  • Population is the Census Bureau’s July 1 estimate for the same year, county totals, Vintage 2025. Rate per 100,000 = crashes ÷ population × 100,000.
  • The five-year average is total crashes over the years with both inputs ÷ total population over those years × 100,000, the rolling form in 23 CFR 490.207.
  • What it cannot say. FARS has no injury-only or property-damage crashes, no congestion, and nothing about any one driver, trip or road’s risk. A crash is counted where it happened, not where the people lived. Rates are not ranked here; comparing two places means comparing both sets of inputs.

Informational only, not professional advice. Last reviewed: October 2026. Data snapshot built 2026-10-28.