These US States Have The Worst Drivers, According To A New Study

In December 2025, LendingTree released a study ranking states with the worst drivers, evaluating several categories ranging from speeding to accidents per 1,000 drivers. The data was pretty comprehensive and revealed some surprising findings.

But we're left wondering, isn't there enough division between red states and blue states without competing for who has the worst drivers? Oh, it's not a contest? Well, someone should have told North Dakota, which shows up as the state with the worst drivers in almost every category with an alarming number of incidents, speeders, and DUIs.

Other offenders include New Jersey — which also made Consumer Affairs' list as one of the states with the most aggressive drivers. New Jersey not only has more accidents per 1,000 drivers than other states, but it also leads the nation by a wide margin. Rhode Island, California, Maine, and Massachusetts round out the list of states when it comes to accidents. Utah crops up in the top 10 worst states in multiple categories, as does California, which is probably not a surprise to anyone who has had to drive in Los Angeles. But North Dakota steals the show when it comes to bad drivers.

North Dakota, or as we like to call it, "Other Dakota" — as in, "Is that the one with Mt. Rushmore? No, that's the other Dakota" — is a state that isn't known for much, though we're sure it's a perfectly lovely place to live. 

Well, now North Dakota has something to be known for, and that would be the number of "incidents" its drivers get themselves involved in. The study defines "incidents" as accidents, DUIs, speeding, and citations. It's sort of a combination of the other categories in this study. North Dakota had 64 such incidents per 1,000 drivers. New Jersey took a distant second place at 58.8 incidents, with Utah, Rhode Island, and Washington rounding out the top five in this category.

Michigan, on the other hand, has the best drivers according to this metric, with only 20.9 incidents per 1,000 drivers (good for you, Michigan!). Florida comes in at No. 2 with 23.1 per 1,000 drivers. This should come as a shock, mostly to Floridians, as well as anyone else who has had to drive in Florida. But everything is relative. Colorado is a close third with 23.7 incidents per 1,000 drivers. Connecticut and Illinois come in at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

According to this study, North Dakotans have lead feet. They claim the highest number of speeding incidents out of all the states — 11.9 speeding incidents per 1,000 drivers, the only state to have more than 10 incidents per 1,000 drivers. It also made the list of states that hand out the most speeding tickets. This begs the question: What is your hurry, North Dakota? Seriously, where are you in such a rush to go? 

One of LendingTree's own insurance experts, Rob Bhatt, argues that it is tempting to speed in rural areas, where there isn't much traffic to slow you down. We're guessing Rob hasn't been stuck for long behind a farmer's combine going 20 mph on a two-lane highway with nothing but no passing zones. Even so, this explanation would shed light on why so many of the worst-offending states at the top of this list are largely rural. Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Minnesota fill out the rest of the top five states for most speeding incidents per 1,000 drivers.

New Jersey had the lowest number of speeding incidents, just 0.2 per 1,000 drivers. That's surprising, considering how poorly New Jersey ranks in the accidents category. Massachusetts, New York, the District of Colombia, and California all had less than one speeding incident per 1,000, which is impressive. Well, except for California. Its numbers are probably skewed by all the drivers trapped in grid-locked traffic around L.A. during rush hour. Surprisingly, Florida, while not in the "under one club" for this category, did score sixth best. Will wonders never cease?

North Dakota takes yet another category, and this time it's in DUIs, with 3.7 DUIs per 1,000 drivers. What is going on over there, North Dakota? At this point, we think someone needs to check on North Dakota to make sure it's okay. We don't know, maybe hold an intervention, give it a little reassurance. We're sorry for calling you "Other Dakota" all those times, ND. We just want you to get better.

Other states with high DUI rates include California, Minnesota, and Utah. Wyoming and Wisconsin tie for fifth place. Nevada, Iowa, and Alaska all tie for seventh place. Oddly, the study doesn't list a sixth place, but skips it since two states tie for fifth.

Once again, Florida, of all places, sets an example for the rest of the country. It has the lowest occurrence of DUI incidents (just 0.4 per 1,000 drivers). Now we have to ask, does Florida Man not possess a driver's license? Is that why this number is so low? Other states that deserve commendation in this regard are Illinois, Mississippi, West Virginia, Colorado, Missouri, Alabama, South Carolina, and Delaware, which all had less than one DUI incident per 1,000 drivers.

A long time ago, Joe Piscopo had a character on Saturday Night Live who would obnoxiously announce to everyone he saw, "I'm from Jersey!" whether they asked or not. If anyone replied that their friend was from Jersey, his response would be, "Yeah? What exit?"

Yeah, it wasn't that funny when it originally aired, either. But we bring it up because we imagine I-95 gets pretty clogged on a daily basis due to accidents having to be cleared away. At 31.5 accidents per 1,000 drivers, the Garden State is the only state to break above 30 accidents per 1,000 drivers. Congratulations, New Jersey! You're actually worse than North Dakota at something. We're surprised New Jersey didn't make the list of the deadliest states for American drivers. The next closest would be Rhode Island at 29 per 1,000. California comes in at No. 3 with 28.1. Rounding out the top five here would be Maine and Massachusetts. North Dakota didn't even make it to the top 10 in this category.

Of those states with the lowest rates of accidents, Michigan does the best at only 10 per 1,000 drivers, followed by Colorado at 11.7. Florida, distinguishing itself once again, is a close third at 11.9. Rounding out the lowest five in accidents per 1,000 drivers would be Mississippi and Minnesota.

The main takeaway from this is to be careful if you ever have to drive through North Dakota. Of course, there are other, more important lessons to be learned here. 

You need to be careful, regardless of which state you're driving through, even Florida. Also, driving sober and obeying the speed limit are important parts of staying safe. Bhatt pointed out that speeding, driving impaired, and driving distracted are the three largest contributors to automobile accidents. Interestingly, LendingTree's study didn't really address distracted driving. It may be that data on distracted driving is harder to come by. As of this writing, Montana doesn't have any prohibition against distracted driving, and you can't get pulled over for it in Ohio. Regardless, we can all agree it's a dangerous thing to do, and we should all put our phones down while driving.

LendingTree's report also contains a useful tip about getting "uninsured motorist coverage." One in seven drivers don't carry liability insurance. That's scary, especially if you live in New Jersey. Uninsured motorist coverage will cover you if you get hit by someone like that. Whatever the case, let's all be careful out there.