Fatal crash rate · State

Fatal crash rate in Montana

Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in Montana, 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.

Montana2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

17.0fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 193 fatal crashes in Montana, where 1,137,557 people lived. That is 17.0 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 206 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 17.7. Per mile driven, Montana had 1.4 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle-miles in 2024.

010203040

US 10.7

Montana 17.0

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

Per 100,000: 193 fatal crashes ÷ 1,137,557 residents × 100,000 = 17.0
Five-year: 987 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 5,583,274 resident-years × 100,000 = 17.7
Per 100M miles: 193 fatal crashes ÷ 13,865 million vehicle-miles (2024) × 100 = 1.4
Same year: United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

US 10.7

17.5

20.1

16.6

17.3

17.0

20202021202220232024

Bars: this place, fatal crashes per 100,000 residents. Dashed line: the United States in the latest year. Source: NHTSA FARS and Census population estimates, each year.

Year	Fatal crashes	Deaths	Population	Per 100,000	Vehicle-miles (millions)	Per 100M miles
2020	190	213	1,087,156	17.5	12,104	1.6
2021	222	239	1,106,416	20.1	13,482	1.6
2022	186	215	1,121,533	16.6	13,514	1.4
2023	196	208	1,130,612	17.3	13,700	1.4
2024	193	206	1,137,557	17.0	13,865	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 987 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to Montana over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road type	Crashes	Share
Interstate	165	17%
Other freeway or expressway	0	0%
Other principal arterial	340	34%
Minor arterial	161	16%
Major collector	137	14%
Minor collector	46	5%
Local road	129	13%
Unknown or not reported	9	1%
Rural	784	79%
Urban	194	20%

Time of day	Crashes	Share
Midnight to 5:59 am	185	19%
6 am to 11:59 am	181	18%
Noon to 5:59 pm	297	30%
6 pm to 11:59 pm	318	32%
Hour unknown	6	1%

Light	Crashes	Share
Daylight	520	53%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)	353	36%
Dark, lighted	63	6%
Dawn or dusk	46	5%
Unknown or not reported	5	1%

Weather	Crashes	Share
Clear	558	57%
Cloudy	296	30%
Rain	35	4%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain	51	5%
Fog, smog or smoke	15	2%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other	6	1%
Unknown or not reported	26	3%

Involving	Crashes	Share
A pedestrian	80	8%
A bicyclist or other cyclist	10	1%
A speeding-related vehicle	366	37%
A driver police reported as drinking	403	41%

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 Montana

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.

Beaverhead County 5 · 50.1
Big Horn County 7 · 54.5
Blaine County 2 · 29.1
Broadwater County 3 · 36.2
Carbon County 4 · 34.8
Carter County 0 · 0.0
Cascade County 11 · 13.0
Chouteau County 3 · 51.3
Custer County 3 · 25.0
Daniels County 0 · 0.0
Dawson County 0 · 0.0
Deer Lodge County 5 · 51.2
Fergus County 0 · 0.0
Flathead County 23 · 20.1
Gallatin County 19 · 14.9
Garfield County 1 · 85.1
Glacier County 5 · 37.0
Golden Valley County 1 · 118.5
Granite County 1 · 27.5
Hill County 1 · 6.2
Jefferson County 7 · 52.9
Judith Basin County 0 · 0.0
Lake County 8 · 24.0
Lewis and Clark County 6 · 8.0
Liberty County 0 · 0.0
Lincoln County 3 · 13.5
Madison County 1 · 10.2
McCone County 0 · 0.0
Meagher County 2 · 95.5
Mineral County 1 · 19.3
Missoula County 14 · 11.4
Musselshell County 2 · 36.7
Park County 4 · 22.0
Phillips County 2 · 47.7
Pondera County 3 · 49.5
Powder River County 0 · 0.0
Powell County 0 · 0.0
Prairie County 0 · 0.0
Ravalli County 3 · 6.2
Richland County 0 · 0.0
Roosevelt County 1 · 9.8
Rosebud County 3 · 36.5
Sanders County 3 · 21.6
Sheridan County 0 · 0.0
Silver Bow County 3 · 8.3
Stillwater County 6 · 63.6
Sweet Grass County 2 · 52.4
Teton County 1 · 15.5
Toole County 0 · 0.0
Treasure County 1 · 136.1
Valley County 0 · 0.0
Wheatland County 0 · 0.0
Yellowstone County 23 · 13.4

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.
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.