Fatal crash rate · State
Fatal crash rate in South Carolina
Fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA in South 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.
South Carolina2024 · fatal crashes recorded by NHTSA
17.3fatal crashes per 100,000 residents in 2024
In 2024, NHTSA recorded 948 fatal crashes in South Carolina, where 5,490,316 people lived. That is 17.3 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents, and 1,038 people died in those crashes. Over 2020 to 2024 the average was 18.9. Per mile driven, South Carolina had 1.5 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 South Carolina; the white posts are the United States.
- Per 100,000
- 948 fatal crashes ÷ 5,490,316 residents × 100,000 = 17.3
- Five-year
- 5,019 crashes (2020 to 2024) ÷ 26,496,409 resident-years × 100,000 = 18.9
- Per 100M miles
- 948 fatal crashes ÷ 62,042 million vehicle-miles (2024) × 100 = 1.5
- 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 | 964 | 1,066 | 5,131,992 | 18.8 | 53,972 | 1.8 |
| 2021 | 1,112 | 1,198 | 5,194,346 | 21.4 | 57,492 | 1.9 |
| 2022 | 1,019 | 1,094 | 5,288,957 | 19.3 | 58,988 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 976 | 1,047 | 5,390,798 | 18.1 | 60,794 | 1.6 |
| 2024 | 948 | 1,038 | 5,490,316 | 17.3 | 62,042 | 1.5 |
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 5,019 fatal crashes NHTSA coded to South Carolina over five years, from the fields FARS records. Nothing is estimated or inferred.
| Road type | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate | 521 | 10% |
| Other freeway or expressway | 34 | 1% |
| Other principal arterial | 1,599 | 32% |
| Minor arterial | 1,381 | 28% |
| Major collector | 907 | 18% |
| Minor collector | 46 | 1% |
| Local road | 531 | 11% |
| Unknown or not reported | 0 | 0% |
| Rural | 2,682 | 53% |
| Urban | 2,337 | 47% |
| Time of day | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight to 5:59 am | 1,033 | 21% |
| 6 am to 11:59 am | 822 | 16% |
| Noon to 5:59 pm | 1,300 | 26% |
| 6 pm to 11:59 pm | 1,864 | 37% |
| Hour unknown | 0 | 0% |
| Light | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | 2,071 | 41% |
| Dark, not lighted (or lighting unknown) | 2,180 | 43% |
| Dark, lighted | 468 | 9% |
| Dawn or dusk | 298 | 6% |
| Unknown or not reported | 2 | 0% |
| Weather | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Clear | 4,244 | 85% |
| Cloudy | 287 | 6% |
| Rain | 415 | 8% |
| Snow, sleet or freezing rain | 3 | 0% |
| Fog, smog or smoke | 58 | 1% |
| Severe wind, blowing sand or other | 2 | 0% |
| Unknown or not reported | 10 | 0% |
| Involving | Crashes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A pedestrian | 885 | 18% |
| A bicyclist or other cyclist | 121 | 2% |
| A speeding-related vehicle | 1,988 | 40% |
| A driver police reported as drinking | 1,384 | 28% |
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 South 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.
- Abbeville County 4 · 16.2
- Aiken County 27 · 15.1
- Allendale County 1 · 13.3
- Anderson County 45 · 20.7
- Bamberg County 3 · 23.4
- Barnwell County 7 · 34.1
- Beaufort County 23 · 11.3
- Berkeley County 37 · 13.9
- Calhoun County 6 · 42.3
- Charleston County 55 · 12.7
- Cherokee County 18 · 31.1
- Chester County 8 · 24.6
- Chesterfield County 10 · 22.5
- Clarendon County 9 · 29.0
- Colleton County 16 · 40.6
- Darlington County 17 · 27.1
- Dillon County 11 · 39.9
- Dorchester County 33 · 18.9
- Edgefield County 5 · 17.1
- Fairfield County 8 · 39.1
- Florence County 28 · 20.2
- Georgetown County 19 · 28.7
- Greenville County 82 · 14.3
- Greenwood County 5 · 7.1
- Hampton County 5 · 27.5
- Horry County 57 · 13.8
- Jasper County 15 · 41.3
- Kershaw County 10 · 13.9
- Lancaster County 18 · 16.2
- Laurens County 16 · 22.7
- Lee County 4 · 25.2
- Lexington County 52 · 16.6
- Marion County 12 · 42.1
- Marlboro County 9 · 35.2
- McCormick County 3 · 30.1
- Newberry County 7 · 17.8
- Oconee County 14 · 17.0
- Orangeburg County 38 · 45.7
- Pickens County 20 · 14.5
- Richland County 59 · 13.7
- Saluda County 7 · 35.8
- Spartanburg County 56 · 15.1
- Sumter County 23 · 21.9
- Union County 8 · 29.9
- Williamsburg County 8 · 26.8
- York County 30 · 9.9
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.