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Fatal crash rate · State

Fatal crash rate in North Carolina

Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in North Carolina, 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.

North Carolina2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA

13.7fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024

In 2024, NHTSA recorded 1,509 fatal crashes in North Carolina, where 11,052,061 people lived. That is 13.7 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 1,619 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 13.9. Per mile driven, North Carolina had 1.2 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 North Carolina; the white posts are the United States.

Per 100,000
1,509 fatal crashes ÷ 11,052,061 residents × 100,000 = 13.7
Five-year
7,453 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 53,645,396 resident-years × 100,000 = 13.9
Per 100M miles
1,509 fatal crashes ÷ 131,008 million vehicle-miles (2024) × 100 = 1.2
Same year
United States: 36,297 ÷ 340,003,797 = 10.7

Every year, 2020 to 2024

YearFatal crashesDeathsPopulationPer 100,000Vehicle-miles (millions)Per 100M miles
20201,4151,53810,450,21513.5106,3421.3
20211,5631,69310,565,50314.8117,7341.3
20221,5011,63110,705,76814.0119,3811.3
20231,4651,57710,871,84913.5122,2581.2
20241,5091,61911,052,06113.7131,0081.2

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 7,453 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to North Carolina over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.

Road typeCrashesShare
Interstate76010%
Other freeway or expressway3074%
Other principal arterial1,58221%
Minor arterial1,46120%
Major collector1,37919%
Minor collector5327%
Local road1,42519%
Unknown or not reported70%
Rural4,21157%
Urban3,23543%
Time of dayCrashesShare
Midnight to 5:59 am1,32418%
6 am to 11:59 am1,47520%
Noon to 5:59 pm2,13629%
6 pm to 11:59 pm2,51034%
Hour unknown80%
LightCrashesShare
Daylight3,59948%
Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown)2,62335%
Dark, lighted89112%
Dawn or dusk3094%
Unknown or not reported310%
WeatherCrashesShare
Clear5,94980%
Cloudy75410%
Rain6278%
Snow, sleet or freezing rain150%
Fog, smog or smoke711%
Severe wind, blowing sand or other40%
Unknown or not reported330%
InvolvingCrashesShare
A pedestrian1,22816%
A bicyclist or other cyclist1582%
A speeding-related vehicle2,48333%
A driver police reported as drinking1,41919%

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 North Carolina

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.

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.