New Study: This U.S. State Has the Worst Drivers—See Where Your State Ranks
At one point or another, you’ve probably felt like you were surrounded by the worst drivers in the country. You might’ve experienced this in your hometown, on your daily commute or while road-tripping around the U.S. Just as we pick up regional accents, we can also acquire bad driving habits based on where we live.
It sometimes seems like whole communities struggle with driving basics like merging onto the freeway, paying attention to who arrived first at the four-way stop or using the turn signal when changing lanes. If you’ve ever suspected a self-driving car could navigate the roadways better than the guy next to you, you probably weren’t far off. Self-driving cars are programmed to follow the rules of the road, and human beings tend to cut themselves slack and take calculated risks, like hitting the gas to make it through a yellow light or setting cruise control to 80 mph.
Some driving habits are a byproduct of geography and demographics. Cities with high population density feel rife with drivers traveling too close, too fast or bothand more cars often equals more incidents. On the other end of the spectrum, vacation hot spots also seem to attract some of the worst drivers, though much of that is due to the fact that people on vacation are relaxed, not in a hurry and usually don’t know where they’re going.
Anecdotal evidence aside, there’s also data on the states with the best and worst drivers, like the latest report from LendingTree. “We did not conduct this study to shame any one state or group of states. Rather, we did this to help raise awareness,” says Rob Bhatt, an insurance expert at LendingTree. “Safe, responsible driving helps you avoid accidents. As an added benefit, it can also help you save money on car insurance.”
Keep reading to learn more about the study, find out which states are home to the best and worst drivers, and see how your state ranks.
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How did the study determine the states with the worst drivers?
LendingTree researchers analyzed tens of millions of insurance inquiries from Nov. 5, 2023, to Nov. 4, 2024, then used the data to determine the best and worst drivers by state. “Bad driving means different things to different people,” Bhatt explains. “We analyzed unsafe behaviors that are linked to accidents and injuries, including speeding and impaired driving.”
The study zeroed in on four categories: accidents, DUIs, speeding-related incidents and general citations, the latter of which includes improper passing, operating a vehicle without insurance, failure to signal and failure to yield to others.
Which state has the worst drivers?
According to the LendingTree report, Massachusetts has the worst drivers. “Massachusetts drivers had 61.1 overall incidents per 1,000 drivers during the study period, which was the worst rate among all states and the District of Columbia,” Bhatt says. “Rhode Island was a close second, with a rate of 60.6. California came in third with a 55.”
Why does Massachusetts have the worst drivers?
Massachusetts has a reputation for having the worst driversand they even have a nickname we can’t mention in these pages. (Hint: It’s a portmanteau of the state abbreviation and an anatomical swear word.) But there are reasons (or are they excuses?) for at least some of the Bay State’s driving quirks and norms.
“Massachusetts drivers get pegged as the worst in the nation, but it’s not all how we drive,” says Kate Terry, co-founder and CEO of Surround Insurance and a longtime product manager who has worked at auto-insurance companies like Liberty Mutual and Progressive and lives in the Boston area. “We are also one of the most congested states, with a mostly urban population driving in heavy traffic on roads that sometimes feel like they were laid out by a wandering cow in the 1700s.”
Terry is spot-on that Massachusetts’s roads don’t feel designed for today’s vehicles, traffic patterns and constant sense of urgency. They always seem to be under construction, and the state experiences snow and ice storms that affect road quality. On top of that, drivers from the densely populated suburbs to the west of Boston have to deal with sun-blindness during both the morning and evening commutes.
Which other states rounded out the top five?
If you’ve ever felt like everyone is driving 20 miles over the speed limit and you’ll be run off the road if you don’t keep up, you might’ve been in one of the states ranking high for speeding-related incidents. But when it comes to bad drivers, speeding is just one factor. Let’s look at the other states rounding out the top five for worst drivers and examine the driving behaviors that secured their positions.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island ranks second for the worst drivers, with an overall incident rate of 60.6 for the 12 months that were analyzed. The state tied with California for the number of accidents (a rate of 39.7 per 1,000 drivers) and with Wisconsin for the DUI rate (the 13th highest in the country). The Ocean State is also the 28th worst (tied with Hawaii) when it comes to speeding-related incidents, with a rate of 2.4 incidents per 1,000 drivers.
California
California ranks third, with an overall incident rate of 55. We already identified the Golden State as tying with Rhode Island for the second-highest accident rate, at 39.7 per 1,000 drivers. And with a DUI rate of 3.5, California nabs the second-highest slot in that category too.
When it comes to speeding, the state has just 1.2 incidents per 1,000 drivers, making it the fourth best in the nation.
District of Columbia
The District of Columbia is fourth overall for worst drivers in the United States, with 54.6 incidents per 1,000 drivers. It has 0.8 speeding-related incidents per 1,000 drivers, the lowest of all the states, but it has the highest DUI rate (3.6) and the fourth-highest accident rate (31.9).
New Jersey
New Jersey drivers are the fifth worst in the nation, with 45.8 incidents per 1,000 drivers. The Garden State also ranks fifth for accidents (a rate of 30.4) and DUIs (a rate of 2.5). And it ties Massachusetts for speeding-related incidents, with a rate of 1.3.
How do the rest of the states rank?
Here’s how all states rank, from worst to best, when it comes to the number of problematic incidents per 1,000 drivers.
- Massachusetts: 61.1 incidents
- Rhode Island: 60.6 incidents
- California: 55 incidents
- District of Columbia: 54.6 incidents
- New Jersey: 45.8 incidents
- North Carolina: 39.6 incidents
- Washington: 37.4 incidents
- Maryland: 34.9 incidents
- North Dakota: 34.7 incidents
- Utah: 32.1 incidents
- Idaho: 31.2 incidents
- Nebraska: 29.5 incidents
- Tennessee: 29.3 incidents
- Iowa: 29.2 incidents
- Wisconsin: 28.8 incidents
- Indiana: 28.3 incidents
- Kansas: 28.3 incidents
- Oregon: 27.7 incidents
- South Carolina: 27.7 incidents
- Nevada: 27.6 incidents
- Maine: 26.7 incidents
- Virginia: 26.5 incidents
- Hawaii: 26.3 incidents
- Delaware: 26.2 incidents
- Ohio: 26 incidents
- Connecticut: 25.8 incidents
- Missouri: 25.4 incidents
- Montana: 25.3 incidents
- Minnesota: 24.8 incidents
- South Dakota: 24.7 incidents
- Texas: 24.7 incidents
- Wyoming: 24.6 incidents
- Colorado: 24.5 incidents
- Georgia: 24 incidents
- Florida: 23.8 incidents
- New Mexico: 23.4 incidents
- Pennsylvania: 23.3 incidents
- Alabama: 22 incidents
- New Hampshire: 21.8 incidents
- Arizona: 21.5 incidents
- New York: 21.5 incidents
- Mississippi: 21.2 incidents
- Louisiana: 19.4 incidents
- Illinois: 19.3 incidents
- West Virginia: 18.4 incidents
- Alaska: 17 incidents
- Oklahoma: 15.9 incidents
- Kentucky: 15.8 incidents
- Vermont: 15.5 incidents
- Michigan: 15.3 incidents
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Sources:
- LendingTree: “Best and Worst Drivers by State: 2024 Report”
- Rob Bhatt, insurance expert at LendingTree; email interview, January 2025
- Kate Terry, longtime insurance product manager, and co-founder of Surround Insurance and licensed insurance agent; email interview, January 2025
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