Everyone has thoughts on where the worst drivers live, and it’s usually the same city as them. But because such opinions tend to be vibe-based and informed by anecdotal experience — most of us haven’t been to every state, much less lived in them — we need to look elsewhere for definitive answers. Fortunately, there’s data on which states’ drivers get into the most accidents and wreak havoc on the road in general. Before your next road trip, find out which states have the worst (and best) drivers.

Worst of the Worst

In 2025, LendingTree published a study of the states with the best and worst drivers, analyzing “tens of millions” of auto insurance inquiries from January 1 to September 30, 2025. The company flagged accidents, DUIs, speeding-related incidents, and general citations (e.g., improper lane usage, failure to yield, not signaling, or following another vehicle closely). 

Perhaps because it wanted to avoid being forgotten, North Dakota is here to claim the title of “worst drivers in the U.S.,” per the study. It had the most incidents per 1,000 drivers last year. The rest of the 10 states with the worst drivers spanned coast to coast, from the Garden State to the Golden State.

• North Dakota (64 incidents per 1,000 drivers)
• New Jersey (58.8)
• Utah (54.6)
• Rhode Island (52.2)
• Washington (44.9)
• Maine (44.1)
• Idaho (43.4)
• District of Columbia (42.2)
• California (41.9)
• Montana (40.3)

When we zoom in on individual categories in the study, North Dakota again ranks first for speeding specifically. States that are mostly rural are overrepresented here, likely because there are fewer drivers on the road and perhaps fewer opportunities to get noticed by police.

• North Dakota (11.9 incidents per 1,000 drivers)
• Utah (9.4)
• Vermont (7.7)
• Virginia (5.9)
• Minnesota (5.4)
• Arkansas (4.8)
• Wisconsin (4.6)
• Maine (4.4)
• Kansas (4.2)
• Rhode Island (4.2)

If you focus solely on accidents, however, North Dakota drops out of the top 10, and New Jersey has the unenviable distinction of being in first place. (Interestingly, though Garden State drivers seem prone to accidents, New Jersey actually has the lowest number of speeding incidents.) 

• New Jersey (31.5 incidents per 1,000 drivers)
• Rhode Island (29.0)
• California (28.1)
• Maine (25.5)
• Massachusetts (25.4)
• Washington (24.8)
• Utah (23.8)
• North Carolina (22.1)
• New Hampshire (21.4)
• Maryland (20.7)

Best of the Best

On the other end of the spectrum are the states with the fewest accidents per 1,000 drivers. Here are the 10 states with the best drivers in the country:

• Michigan (10 incidents per 1,000 drivers)
• Colorado (11.7)
• Florida (11.9)
• Mississippi (12.8)
• Minnesota (13.3)
• West Virginia (13.5)
• Arkansas (13.8)
• Illinois (13.9)
• Missouri (14.2)
• Delaware (14.3)

Next on the list are Pennsylvania (14.7), Arizona (14.8), New Mexico (15.0), Connecticut (15.0), and Kentucky (15.1).

Featured image credit: © Olga Kaya—iStock/stock.adobe.com