New Mexico reaches top spot and historic levels. The rate of death (per 100,000 people) increased 65 percent over the decade from 2013 to 2022, from 2.53 up to 4.19. In absolute terms, these deaths have nearly doubled over that period, increasing by 90 percent. New Mexico is also getting worse faster than other states—New Mexico had the second largest increase in the rate of death (+1.03) when comparing average rates for consecutive five-year periods. To put that long-term increase in perspective, the total pedestrian fatality rate in the United Kingdom in 2022 (0.57 deaths per 100k people) was approximately half of New Mexico’s long-term increase.

All but two of the 20 most deadly states are getting worse. Only Delaware (-0.30) and Nevada (-0.09) in the top 20 saw improvements in their long-term fatality rate (comparing average rates for 2013-2017 to 2018-2022). The rest of the 18 most deadly states are growing more deadly.

Six other states are trending less deadly, though most with only modest gains. Rhode Island saw the biggest improvement of any state at -0.50. The other five states trending less deadly only saw modest improvements, with a -0.31 total cumulative decrease in MA, ME, NH, NY, and UT added together. While these decreases are relatively small, it’s worth noting that eight total states improved in this report, compared to just four in our 2022 report.