Fatal crash rate · State
Fatal crash rate in California
Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in California, 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.
California2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA
9.1fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024
In 2024, NHTSA recorded 3,583 fatal crashes in California, where 39,364,774 people lived. That is 9.1 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 3,876 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 9.9. Per mile driven, California had 1.1 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 California; the white posts are the United States.
- Per 100,000
- 3,583 fatal crashes ÷ 39,364,774 residents × 100,000 = 9.1
- Five-year
- 19,496 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 196,352,523 resident-years × 100,000 = 9.9
- Per 100M miles
- 3,583 fatal crashes ÷ 325,959 million vehicle-miles (2024) × 100 = 1.1
- 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 | 3,673 | 3,980 | 39,527,808 | 9.3 | 299,812 | 1.2 |
| 2021 | 4,196 | 4,513 | 39,152,927 | 10.7 | 310,823 | 1.3 |
| 2022 | 4,218 | 4,539 | 39,125,347 | 10.8 | 315,244 | 1.3 |
| 2023 | 3,826 | 4,169 | 39,181,667 | 9.8 | 316,612 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 3,583 | 3,876 | 39,364,774 | 9.1 | 325,959 | 1.1 |
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 19,496 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to California over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.
| Road type | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate | 2,743 | 14% |
| Other freeway or expressway | 2,022 | 10% |
| Other principal arterial | 5,972 | 31% |
| Minor arterial | 4,464 | 23% |
| Major collector | 2,459 | 13% |
| Minor collector | 353 | 2% |
| Local road | 1,446 | 7% |
| Unknown or not reported | 37 | 0% |
| Rural | 5,064 | 26% |
| Urban | 14,393 | 74% |
| Time of day | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight to 5:59 am | 4,787 | 25% |
| 6 am to 11:59 am | 2,893 | 15% |
| Noon to 5:59 pm | 4,377 | 22% |
| 6 pm to 11:59 pm | 7,069 | 36% |
| Hour unknown | 370 | 2% |
| Light | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | 7,084 | 36% |
| Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown) | 5,111 | 26% |
| Dark, lighted | 6,416 | 33% |
| Dawn or dusk | 839 | 4% |
| Unknown or not reported | 46 | 0% |
| Weather | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 16,517 | 85% |
| Cloudy | 1,789 | 9% |
| Rain | 723 | 4% |
| Snow, sleet or freezing rain | 25 | 0% |
| Fog, smog or smoke | 192 | 1% |
| Severe wind, blowing sand or other | 74 | 0% |
| Unknown or not reported | 176 | 1% |
| Involving | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A pedestrian | 5,613 | 29% |
| A bicyclist or other cyclist | 770 | 4% |
| A speeding-related vehicle | 6,148 | 32% |
| A driver police reported as drinking | 4,393 | 23% |
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 California
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.
- Alameda County 93 · 5.7
- Alpine County 1 · 92.1
- Amador County 7 · 16.7
- Butte County 33 · 15.8
- Calaveras County 11 · 23.7
- Colusa County 7 · 31.8
- Contra Costa County 64 · 5.5
- Del Norte County 6 · 22.3
- El Dorado County 16 · 8.3
- Fresno County 150 · 14.5
- Glenn County 6 · 21.2
- Humboldt County 22 · 16.6
- Imperial County 21 · 11.5
- Inyo County 12 · 65.6
- Kern County 173 · 18.7
- Kings County 28 · 18.2
- Lake County 23 · 33.9
- Lassen County 2 · 7.0
- Los Angeles County 726 · 7.4
- Madera County 26 · 15.7
- Marin County 11 · 4.3
- Mariposa County 2 · 11.8
- Mendocino County 14 · 15.7
- Merced County 42 · 14.2
- Modoc County 4 · 46.9
- Mono County 5 · 39.4
- Monterey County 43 · 9.9
- Napa County 11 · 8.3
- Nevada County 8 · 7.8
- Orange County 194 · 6.1
- Placer County 40 · 9.2
- Plumas County 2 · 10.7
- Riverside County 275 · 10.9
- Sacramento County 154 · 9.6
- San Benito County 11 · 15.9
- San Bernardino County 310 · 14.0
- San Diego County 282 · 8.6
- San Francisco County 42 · 5.1
- San Joaquin County 123 · 15.1
- San Luis Obispo County 26 · 9.2
- San Mateo County 27 · 3.6
- Santa Barbara County 35 · 7.9
- Santa Clara County 96 · 5.0
- Santa Cruz County 16 · 6.1
- Shasta County 30 · 16.5
- Sierra County 1 · 32.0
- Siskiyou County 12 · 28.2
- Solano County 40 · 8.8
- Sonoma County 27 · 5.6
- Stanislaus County 76 · 13.6
- Sutter County 16 · 16.2
- Tehama County 13 · 20.1
- Trinity County 5 · 31.9
- Tulare County 67 · 13.8
- Tuolumne County 8 · 14.8
- Ventura County 55 · 6.6
- Yolo County 20 · 9.0
- Yuba County 13 · 14.9
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.