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Which states have the most motorcycle fatalities?

Lance Oliver

May 14, 2019

178 Comments

Maybe it's simpler than I thought: The more you ride, the more you're exposed and the more likely you are to die out there.

Of course, in reality, I rarely think it's simple. (Some accuse me of being the king of overthinking it.) But some basic stats compiled by the insurance comparison web site QuoteWizard suggests that the states that have the most motorcycle fatalities are the ones with warm weather, where people are out riding all year.

They used National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stats to compare the number of motorcycle fatalities in 2017 with the number of registered motorcycles and come up with the rate of fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles. Southern states such as Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina topped the list. Montana, with plenty of winter and not a lot of traffic, was an outlier at the safer end of the list.

I guess the biggest surprise to me on this list was South Dakota coming in at number 49. Sure, winters are long and therefore motorcycling miles per year are fewer, but every year there’s also a huge influx of riders to Sturgis. About two to five out-of-state riders die during the Sturgis Rally annually. In a state with only 16 motorcycle fatalities in 2017, that’s enough to move the needle.

Of course it's true that just riding more means you are exposed to more hazards, but we still control our destiny far more than we think. Learning to ride aware and developing the skills to evade dangerous situations makes most crashes in traffic avoidable, and not riding impaired greatly improves your odds of avoiding a solo crash.

Here's how the states rank.

Motorcycle fatalities per registration per state
Rank	State	Registered motorcycles	Fatalities	Fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles
1	Mississippi	28,124	40	14.22
2	Texas	364,690	490	13.44
3	South Carolina	118,132	145	12.27
4	Florida	586,267	590	10.06
5	Arizona	164,055	163	9.94
6	North Carolina	188,843	176	9.32
7	New Mexico	57,718	53	9.18
8	Kentucky	101,163	90	8.90
9	Missouri	138,294	121	8.75
10	Louisiana	113,664	96	8.45
11	Tennessee	165,968	134	8.07
12	Maryland	118,277	86	7.27
13	Arkansas	89,457	65	7.27
14	Nevada	76,032	54	7.10
15	Alabama	112,185	79	7.04
16	Hawaii	35,576	25	7.03
17	Oklahoma	136,190	93	6.83
18	Georgia	203,922	139	6.82
19	Connecticut	90,131	57	6.32
20	California	842,543	529	6.28
21	Virginia	193,951	117	6.03
22	Indiana	250,579	149	5.95
23	Wyoming	28,960	17	5.87
24	Kansas	95,892	56	5.84
25	Michigan	258,487	150	5.80
26	New Jersey	152,979	83	5.43
27	Colorado	190,002	103	5.42
28	Maine	51,467	26	5.05
29	Pennsylvania	377,158	187	4.96
30	Illinois	333,943	162	4.85
31	Nebraska	55,736	27	4.84
32	Utah	83,993	39	4.64
33	West Virginia	60,582	26	4.29
34	Vermont	30,955	13	4.20
35	Oregon	142,738	57	3.99
36	Idaho	63,297	25	3.95
37	Ohio	410,187	157	3.83
38	New York	392,178	145	3.70
39	Delaware	27,810	10	3.60
40	Rhode Island	30,914	11	3.56
41	Washington	231,401	80	3.46
42	Massachusets	168,931	51	3.02
43	Iowa	194,603	48	2.47
44	Wisconsin	324,670	77	2.37
45	North Dakota	51,941	12	2.31
46	Minnesota	241,556	55	2.28
47	New Hampshire	78,798	15	1.90
48	Alaska	31,859	6	1.88
49	South Dakota	117,461	16	1.36
50	Montana	306,655	23	.075

Which states have the most motorcycle fatalities?

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