Fatal crash rate · State
Fatal crash rate in Arkansas
Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in Arkansas, 2020 to 2024, divided by the people who live there and the miles driven there. Fatal crashes only: not injuries, not all crashes, not traffic in general.
Arkansas2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA
17.7fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024
In 2024, NHTSA recorded 547 fatal crashes in Arkansas, where 3,096,080 people lived. That is 17.7 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 603 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 19.0. Per mile driven, Arkansas had 1.4 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle-miles in 2024.
The road is a scale of fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024, 0 to 40. The yellow post is Arkansas; the white posts are the United States.
- Per 100,000
- 547 fatal crashes ÷ 3,096,080 residents × 100,000 = 17.7
- Five-year
- 2,894 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 15,254,891 resident-years × 100,000 = 19.0
- Per 100M miles
- 547 fatal crashes ÷ 39,372 million vehicle-miles (2024) × 100 = 1.4
- Same year
- United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7
Every year, 2020 to 2024
| Year | Fatal crashes | Deaths | Population | Per 100,000 | Vehicle-miles (millions) | Per 100M miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 598 | 651 | 3,014,399 | 19.8 | 33,919 | 1.8 |
| 2021 | 630 | 692 | 3,027,127 | 20.8 | 38,427 | 1.6 |
| 2022 | 577 | 637 | 3,047,429 | 18.9 | 38,530 | 1.5 |
| 2023 | 542 | 596 | 3,069,856 | 17.7 | 39,101 | 1.4 |
| 2024 | 547 | 603 | 3,096,080 | 17.7 | 39,372 | 1.4 |
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 2,894 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Arkansas over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.
| Road type | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate | 438 | 15% |
| Other freeway or expressway | 66 | 2% |
| Other principal arterial | 755 | 26% |
| Minor arterial | 663 | 23% |
| Major collector | 494 | 17% |
| Minor collector | 53 | 2% |
| Local road | 419 | 14% |
| Unknown or not reported | 6 | 0% |
| Rural | 1,784 | 62% |
| Urban | 1,109 | 38% |
| Time of day | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight to 5:59 am | 500 | 17% |
| 6 am to 11:59 am | 607 | 21% |
| Noon to 5:59 pm | 907 | 31% |
| 6 pm to 11:59 pm | 871 | 30% |
| Hour unknown | 9 | 0% |
| Light | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | 1,511 | 52% |
| Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown) | 993 | 34% |
| Dark, lighted | 263 | 9% |
| Dawn or dusk | 106 | 4% |
| Unknown or not reported | 21 | 1% |
| Weather | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 2,235 | 77% |
| Cloudy | 349 | 12% |
| Rain | 246 | 9% |
| Snow, sleet or freezing rain | 12 | 0% |
| Fog, smog or smoke | 28 | 1% |
| Severe wind, blowing sand or other | 4 | 0% |
| Unknown or not reported | 20 | 1% |
| Involving | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A pedestrian | 377 | 13% |
| A bicyclist or other cyclist | 37 | 1% |
| A speeding-related vehicle | 647 | 22% |
| A driver police reported as drinking | 540 | 19% |
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.
Counties in Arkansas
Alphabetical, with each county’s 2024 fatal crashes and rate per 100,000. The site does not rank them: a small county’s rate swings on one crash.
- Arkansas County 1 · 6.2
- Ashley County 3 · 16.6
- Baxter County 8 · 18.7
- Benton County 25 · 7.8
- Boone County 5 · 13.0
- Bradley County 1 · 10.0
- Calhoun County 2 · 42.8
- Carroll County 5 · 17.2
- Chicot County 0 · 0.0
- Clark County 4 · 19.1
- Clay County 6 · 42.6
- Cleburne County 7 · 27.3
- Cleveland County 2 · 27.1
- Columbia County 5 · 22.7
- Conway County 3 · 14.0
- Craighead County 19 · 16.3
- Crawford County 7 · 11.2
- Crittenden County 14 · 29.9
- Cross County 3 · 18.4
- Dallas County 2 · 32.7
- Desha County 3 · 29.1
- Drew County 4 · 23.5
- Faulkner County 15 · 11.3
- Franklin County 7 · 39.8
- Fulton County 6 · 47.8
- Garland County 21 · 21.0
- Grant County 1 · 5.4
- Greene County 5 · 10.6
- Hempstead County 8 · 41.5
- Hot Spring County 6 · 18.0
- Howard County 2 · 16.0
- Independence County 10 · 25.9
- Izard County 3 · 21.0
- Jackson County 3 · 18.0
- Jefferson County 13 · 20.4
- Johnson County 5 · 19.0
- Lafayette County 1 · 16.5
- Lawrence County 9 · 55.6
- Lee County 1 · 12.3
- Lincoln County 1 · 7.8
- Little River County 3 · 25.6
- Logan County 8 · 37.2
- Lonoke County 15 · 19.6
- Madison County 2 · 11.1
- Marion County 4 · 22.8
- Miller County 7 · 16.5
- Mississippi County 9 · 23.6
- Monroe County 3 · 47.1
- Montgomery County 5 · 58.4
- Nevada County 4 · 49.8
- Newton County 3 · 42.6
- Ouachita County 4 · 18.3
- Perry County 3 · 29.2
- Phillips County 1 · 6.9
- Pike County 1 · 9.9
- Poinsett County 7 · 31.4
- Polk County 8 · 41.2
- Pope County 10 · 15.5
- Prairie County 7 · 87.9
- Pulaski County 89 · 22.1
- Randolph County 1 · 5.3
- Saline County 12 · 9.1
- Scott County 4 · 40.5
- Searcy County 1 · 12.7
- Sebastian County 14 · 10.7
- Sevier County 4 · 25.2
- Sharp County 7 · 38.7
- St. Francis County 6 · 27.3
- Stone County 5 · 39.3
- Union County 9 · 24.2
- Van Buren County 2 · 12.3
- Washington County 20 · 7.5
- White County 18 · 22.7
- Woodruff County 0 · 0.0
- Yell County 5 · 24.9
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 theFATALSfield. Counties are the FARSSTATEandCOUNTYcodes 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.
- Vehicle-miles are FHWA Highway Statistics table VM-2, total annual travel by state. Rate per 100 million vehicle-miles = crashes ÷ miles × 100,000,000, the form the federal safety rule uses (23 CFR 490.207). FHWA publishes no county vehicle-miles, so county pages have no per-mile rate.
- 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.