Teen driver statistics span several populations: teenagers ages 13–19 in crash-death totals, drivers ages 16–19 in risk comparisons, and high-school students in Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) estimates. The measures below separate deaths, injuries, driver involvements and self-reported behaviors, with geography and period stated for each result.
Key Teen Driver Statistics
The most broadly useful figures include:
- In 2020, about 2,800 U.S. teenagers ages 13–19 were killed in motor-vehicle crashes.
- In 2020, about 227,000 U.S. teenagers ages 13–19 were injured in motor-vehicle crashes.
- U.S. drivers ages 16–19 had a fatal-crash rate almost three times that of drivers ages 20 and older per mile driven.
- In 2024, 2,899 U.S. teenagers ages 13–19 died in motor-vehicle crashes.
- Teenagers ages 13–19 represented 7% of all U.S. motor-vehicle crash deaths in 2024.
- In 2024, 73% of teen motor-vehicle crash deaths were male and 27% were female.
- Among U.S. passenger-vehicle occupants ages 16–19 who died in 2024, 63% were drivers.
- U.S. passenger-vehicle drivers ages 16–19 were involved in 3,057 fatal crashes in 2024.
- In 2024, 41% of passenger-vehicle drivers ages 16–19 involved in fatal crashes were in single-vehicle crashes.
- In the 2019 YRBS, 43.1% of U.S. high-school students did not always wear a seat belt when riding with someone else.
- In 2019, 39.0% of recent U.S. student drivers texted or emailed while driving.
- In 2019, 5.4% of recent U.S. student drivers drove after drinking alcohol.
- In 2019, 16.7% of U.S. high-school students rode with a drinking driver during the prior 30 days.
- Among drivers ages 15–20 involved in fatal crashes in 2019, 9% were distracted at the time of the crash.
- In 2017, 5.9% of U.S. high-school students rarely or never wore a seat belt as a passenger.
- Rarely-or-never seat-belt use declined from 25.9% in 1991 to 5.9% in 2017 among U.S. high-school students.
- Compared with poor graduated-licensing laws, good laws were associated with 30% lower fatal-crash rates among 15–17-year-olds during 1996–2007.
Contents
- Key Teen Driver Statistics
- Teen Driver Crash Deaths, Injuries and Overall Risk
- Teen Driver Trends by Age, Sex and Vehicle Role
- Teen Seat-Belt and Passenger-Exposure Data
- Teen Distracted-Driving and Texting Statistics
- Teen Drinking, Drug-Impaired Driving and Related Risk
- Graduated Licensing and Teen Driver Safety Trends
Teen Driver Crash Deaths, Injuries and Overall Risk
The CDC reports about 2,800 U.S. teens ages 13–19 killed and about 227,000 injured in motor-vehicle crashes in 2020. Both are estimates, and the age group includes teenagers broadly rather than only licensed drivers.
Source: Teen Drivers — CDC.
The same CDC source says drivers ages 16–19 had a fatal-crash rate almost three times that of drivers ages 20 and older per mile driven. The comparison is a rate ratio, not a count of crashes or deaths, and it uses miles driven as the exposure measure.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) describes the comparable 16–19 rate as just over three times the rate for drivers ages 20 and over using a National Household Travel Survey comparison. Within the 16–19 group, risk was highest at ages 16–17.
Source: Fatality Facts 2024: Teenagers — IIHS.
Teen Driver Trends by Age, Sex and Vehicle Role
IIHS analysis of FARS recorded 2,899 U.S. teenagers ages 13–19 killed in motor-vehicle crashes in 2024, equal to 7% of all motor-vehicle crash deaths. The 2024 total was 67% lower than the 8,748 teen crash deaths recorded in 1975; this endpoint comparison does not establish a cause.
| 2024 teen measure | Count or share | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| All motor-vehicle crash deaths | 2,899 | Ages 13–19 |
| Passenger-vehicle occupant deaths | 2,023 | Drivers and passengers, ages 13–19 |
| Pedestrian deaths | 239 | Ages 13–19 |
| Motorcyclist deaths | 432 | Ages 13–19 |
| Bicyclist deaths | 61 | Ages 13–19 |
| ATV rider deaths | 45 | Ages 13–19; 15% of all ATV rider deaths |
Males represented 73% of teen motor-vehicle crash deaths in 2024, with 2,106 male deaths, while females represented 27%, with 785 deaths. A separate CDC leading-cause table cited by IIHS lists motor-vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers of both sexes, with 2,133 male and 788 female crash deaths; the figures differ slightly from the FARS table.
Among passenger-vehicle occupants ages 16–19 who died in 2024, 63% were drivers. Passenger-vehicle occupant deaths were 273 at age 16, 408 at age 17, 508 at age 18 and 579 at age 19.
Passenger-vehicle drivers ages 16–19 accounted for 3,057 drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2024: 1,256 in single-vehicle crashes and 1,801 in multiple-vehicle crashes. The single-vehicle share was 41%, the highest share among the age groups shown by IIHS, compared with 38% for ages 20–24, 36% for ages 25–29, 36% for ages 30–59, 35% for ages 60–69 and 30% for ages 70 and older.
Source: Fatality Facts 2024: Teenagers — IIHS. Driver involvement is not the same as driver death or fault.
Teen Seat-Belt and Passenger-Exposure Data
The 2019 YRBS measures self-reported behavior among U.S. high-school students. Passenger questions use the full student sample, while driver questions are generally limited to students who drove during the prior 30 days.
In 2019, 43.1% of students did not always wear a seat belt when riding with someone else, and 16.7% rode with a drinking driver during the prior 30 days. The CDC’s approximation classified 59.9% of respondents as having driven during the prior 30 days, because driving prevalence was not directly captured.
| 2019 high-school student measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Did not always wear a seat belt as a passenger | 43.1% |
| Rode with a drinking driver in the prior 30 days | 16.7% |
| Approximate share who drove in the prior 30 days | 59.9% |
Not-always-seat-belt use was 45.7% at age 14, 46.9% at age 15, 43.5% at age 16, 38.9% at age 17 and 39.4% among students ages 18 and older. By race or ethnicity, the reported shares were 61.7% among Black students, 48.2% among Hispanic students and 36.6% among White students; these are prevalence estimates, not causal explanations.
Students with mostly Cs, Ds or Fs reported not-always-seat-belt use at 57.0%, compared with 38.8% among students with mostly As or Bs. Riding with a drinking driver was reported by 20.1% of the former group and 15.3% of the latter.
The 2017 YRBS used the stricter “rarely or never” passenger category: 5.9% of U.S. high-school students selected it. This measure declined from 25.9% in 1991 to 5.9% in 2017, while 2017 state surveys ranged from 5.0% to 17.5% across 33 states, with a median of 7.3%; the state range is not a national estimate.
Sources: Transportation Risk Behaviors Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019 — CDC; Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2017 — CDC. The 2019 and 2017 seat-belt categories are not equivalent.
Teen Distracted-Driving and Texting Statistics
Among U.S. high-school students who drove during the prior 30 days, 39.0% reported texting or emailing while driving in 2019. The estimate means at least one day in that period and is self-reported, so it is not a count of distracted trips or crashes.
Texting or emailing while driving increased across the age categories used by the 2019 YRBS: 15.5% at age 14, 15.5% at age 15, 30.5% at age 16, 50.9% at age 17 and 59.5% among students ages 18 and older. Among recent student drivers, the reported share was 43.9% for White students, 35.2% for Hispanic students and 29.5% for Black students.
In the 2017 YRBS, texting while driving was 12.9% for 9th graders, 24.5% for 10th graders, 45.5% for 11th graders and 59.3% for 12th graders. The overall estimate was 41.4% in 2013 and 39.2% in 2017, with no significant linear trend.
Across 36 state surveys in 2017, texting while driving ranged from 27.4% to 55.2%, with a median of 39.3%. Across 19 large urban school districts, it ranged from 18.0% to 36.6%, with a median of 31.4%; neither range is nationally representative.
NHTSA data reported by CDC found that 9% of drivers ages 15–20 involved in fatal crashes in 2019 were distracted at the time of the crash. That fatal-crash measure does not estimate distraction across all teen driving trips.
Sources: Transportation Risk Behaviors Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019 — CDC; Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2017 — CDC; Distracted Driving Risk Factors — CDC.
Teen Drinking, Drug-Impaired Driving and Related Risk
In 2019, 5.4% of U.S. high-school students who drove during the prior 30 days reported driving after drinking alcohol. The age-specific estimates were 2.7% at age 14, 2.6% at age 15, 4.0% at age 16, 5.9% at age 17 and 8.9% among students ages 18 and older; the sex-specific figures were 7.0% for males and 3.6% for females.
In 2017, 16.5% of students reported riding at least once during the prior 30 days with a driver who had been drinking. The share was 20.7% among Hispanic students, 17.0% among Black students and 15.0% among White students; it was 16.1% among heterosexual students, 20.1% among gay, lesbian or bisexual students and 20.9% among students unsure of their sexual identity.
Among recent student drivers, driving after drinking fell from 7.8% in 2015 to 5.5% in 2017, while the overall prevalence declined from 10.0% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2017. CDC reported these as significant decreases, but they remain self-reported behavior measures rather than crash counts.
The 2017 YRBS also reported marijuana-impaired driving at 19.1% among students with opposite-sex-only sexual contact, 30.0% among those with same-sex or both-sex contact and 2.6% among those with no sexual contact. Among females, the corresponding shares were 16.0%, 30.5% and 2.0%; these subgroup estimates should not be treated as general population risk factors.
The 2019 survey found strong cross-sectional associations between behaviors: students who texted while driving had 12.64 times the adjusted prevalence of driving after drinking, and students who rode with a drinking driver had 9.87 times the adjusted prevalence of driving after drinking. Students who drove after drinking had 2.38 times the adjusted prevalence of texting while driving; these are adjusted associations, not causal effects.
Sources: Transportation Risk Behaviors Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019 — CDC; Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2017 — CDC.
Graduated Licensing and Teen Driver Safety Trends
Graduated driver licensing (GDL) research evaluates licensing rules designed for younger drivers, but the cited evidence is observational. It should therefore be read as an association between law strength and crash outcomes, not as a randomized causal effect.
A peer-reviewed national study covering 1996–2007 found that, compared with poor GDL laws, good laws were associated with 30% lower fatal-crash rates among 15–17-year-olds. Laws rated fair were associated with fatal-crash rates 11% lower than laws rated poor; the ratings combine multiple law components.
A separate study tracking 1996–2012 found that teenagers’ per-capita fatal and police-reported crash rates declined sharply, especially for ages 16–17. Its abstract describes the trend direction but does not provide one percentage for the full period.
Sources: Graduated licensing laws and fatal crashes of teenage drivers: a national study — IIHS-hosted peer-reviewed study; Tracking progress in teenage driver crash risk in the United States since the advent of graduated driver licensing programs — IIHS-hosted peer-reviewed study.