CrashRate

Fatal crash rate · Pennsylvania

Fatal crash rate in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

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

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

8.7fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 49 fatal crashes in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where 562,062 people lived. That is 8.7 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 52 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 9.4.

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

Per 100,000
49 fatal crashes ÷ 562,062 residents × 100,000 = 8.7
Five-year
262 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 2,788,537 resident-years × 100,000 = 9.4
Same year
Pennsylvania: 1,060 ÷ 13,045,848 = 8.1 · United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000
20204347552,8197.8
20216973556,42012.4
20225257557,0929.3
20234951560,1448.7
20244952562,0628.7

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 262 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate83%
Other freeway or expressway2610%
Other principal arterial5521%
Minor arterial6826%
Major collector3714%
Minor collector228%
Local road4517%
Unknown or not reported10%
Rural11243%
Urban14957%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am3313%
6 am to 11:59 am5722%
Noon to 5:59 pm8131%
6 pm to 11:59 pm9135%
Hour unknown00%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight13953%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)6926%
Dark, lighted3513%
Dawn or dusk197%
Unknown or not reported00%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear18269%
Cloudy239%
Rain218%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain21%
Fog, smog or smoke31%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other00%
Unknown or not reported3112%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian2710%
A bicyclist or other cyclist42%
A speeding-related vehicle8934%
A driver police reported as drinking5822%
Most-named roadsCrashes
US-22211
US-30 LINCOLN HWY9
US-30 LINCOLN HW6
US-322 28TH DIVISION HWY5
SR-23 NEW HOLLAND PIKE5

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.