The number of pedestrians killed in car crashes reached its lowest point on record in 2009, when 4,109 were killed, according to data analyzed by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
But since then, the outlook has gotten significantly worse for the people walking America’s streets. By 2021, nearly 7,400 pedestrians died in motor vehicle collisions — representing not only an 80% increase in 12 years, but a return to fatality levels not seen since 1981.
In order to understand where the danger lies for pedestrians, we turned to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a database of all fatal car crashes in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which administers FARS, collected records from nearly 7,000 fatal crashes involving pedestrians in 2022 — the most recent year for which data is available.
KEY FINDINGS
- Fatal crashes involving pedestrians increased slightly, up 1% from 2021 to 2022.
- 1 in 4 fatal crashes in New Jersey involves pedestrians, one of the highest rates in the country.
- More than half of fatal crashes involving pedestrians nationwide happen between 5 p.m. and midnight.
Where are the most fatal pedestrian crashes happening?
There were 6,931 fatal crashes involving pedestrians in 2022, up 1% from 6,865 in 2021.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest numbers of crashes are in the most populated states. Of the 15 highest state crash totals, only two (South Carolina and Louisiana) are not among the top 15 state populations.
| Rank | State | Fatal pedestrian crashes (2022) | Population (rank) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 1,064 | 38,965,193 (1) |
| 2 | Texas | 722 | 30,503,301 (2) |
| 3 | Florida | 710 | 22,610,726 (3) |
| 4 | Georgia | 322 | 11,029,227 (8) |
| 5 | New York | 280 | 19,571,216 (4) |
| 6 | Arizona | 279 | 7,431,344 (14) |
| 7 | North Carolina | 243 | 10,835,491 (9) |
| 8 | Tennessee | 194 | 7,126,489 (15) |
| 9 | Illinois | 178 | 12,549,689 (6) |
| 10 (tie) | South Carolina | 164 | 5,373,555 (23) |
| 10 (tie) | Pennsylvania | 164 | 12,961,683 (5) |
| 12 (tie) | Louisiana | 162 | 4,573,749 (25) |
| 12 (tie) | New Jersey | 162 | 9,290,841 (11) |
| 14 | Michigan | 156 | 10,037,261 (10) |
| 15 | Virginia | 155 | 8,715,698 (12) |
However, when adjusting for population by taking each state’s rate of crashes per 100,000 residents, Louisiana and South Carolina both jump up the list — but not as far as New Mexico, which has the highest fatal pedestrian crash rate despite only having 90 such crashes throughout the year.
| Rank | State | Population | Fatal pedestrian crashes (2022) | Crashes per 100,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | 2,114,371 | 90 | 4.26 |
| 2 | Arizona | 7,431,344 | 279 | 3.75 |
| 3 | Louisiana | 4,573,749 | 162 | 3.54 |
| 4 | Florida | 22,610,726 | 710 | 3.14 |
| 5 | South Carolina | 5,373,555 | 164 | 3.05 |
| 6 | Georgia | 11,029,227 | 322 | 2.92 |
| 7 | California | 38,965,193 | 1,064 | 2.73 |
| 8 (tie) | Tennessee | 7,126,489 | 194 | 2.72 |
| 8 (tie) | Oregon | 4,233,358 | 115 | 2.72 |
| 10 | Delaware | 1,031,890 | 28 | 2.71 |
Where are fatal pedestrian crashes most common as a percentage of total crashes?
There may not be very many fatal crashes in the District of Columbia (just 28 in 2022). But a higher percentage of those crashes involved pedestrians than in any other state: 13 of 28, or 46% — more than 2.5 times the national rate of 18%.
Pedestrian crashes make up at least one-quarter of all fatal collisions in four other states, including New Jersey, where the rate remains high even with fatal pedestrian crashes down 15% compared to 2021.
| Rank | State | Total fatal crashes (2022) | Fatal pedestrian crashes (2022) | % of crashes involving pedestrians |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 28 | 13 | 46.4% |
| 2 | California | 4,109 | 1,064 | 25.9% |
| 3 | New York | 1,105 | 280 | 25.3% |
| 4 | New Jersey | 642 | 162 | 25.2% |
| 5 | Hawaii | 111 | 28 | 25.2% |
| 6 | Arizona | 1,183 | 279 | 23.6% |
| 7 | Maryland | 532 | 116 | 21.8% |
| 8 | Massachusetts | 412 | 89 | 21.6% |
| 9 | Florida | 3,298 | 710 | 21.5% |
| 10 | New Mexico | 419 | 90 | 21.5% |
There are four New Jersey counties where at least 40% of fatal crashes involve pedestrians. Camden County, the site of more fatal pedestrian crashes than any other county in New Jersey, also has the highest pedestrian percentage (just under 45%), followed by three localities in the New York Metropolitan Area: Union, Essex, and Hudson counties.
When do fatal crashes involving pedestrians happen most frequently?
Pedestrians face additional risks when the sun goes down. An analysis of FARS data from 2000 through 2021 by The New York Times found that the deadliest time of day for pedestrians shifts each month, but is in the first 1-2 hours after each month’s typical sunset time — as drivers adjust to driving in the dark.
The Times also cited a trend of lower-income people — who are more likely to walk or rely on public transit to get around — moving into suburban areas along high-traffic commuter roads “which can combine highway speeds with the cross traffic of more local roads,” as well as metrics showing that distracted driving peaks in the evening, as potential contributing factors to the increase in pedestrian death rates at night.
FARS data for 2022 identified the hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. as the most dangerous across the full year, with more than 20% of fatal pedestrian crashes happening in that two-hour window. In all, more than 55% of crashes involving pedestrians occur between 6 p.m. and midnight.
Data sources and methodology
Data for this analysis comes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a database of all fatal U.S. motor vehicle crashes maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Information on fatal crashes from 2022, the most recent year available, was released in April 2024; we used fields in the FARS data tables to identify fatal crashes involving pedestrians at the national, state, and county level.
Feel free to use data from this analysis elsewhere, but if you do, please link back to this page and credit Cuneo & Leonetti for attribution purposes.