How We Count

Data Sources

injured.org builds every number from federal government data. We don't buy datasets or use private ones. This page names each source directly. It links to where NHTSA and the Census Bureau publish it.

FARS: the full count of fatal crashes

NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) is the primary source for every death count on this site. It is a full count of fatal motor vehicle crashes on U.S. public roads, not a sample. It's built from police reports, coroner and medical examiner records, and state crash files. The national record goes back to 1975. We use FARS data from 2000 through 2024. NHTSA publishes FARS at nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars . The full raw files are available for download.

CRSS: the injury estimate

NHTSA's Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS) samples police-reported crashes. It covers every severity, not just fatal ones. The sample is built to stand in for the whole country. CRSS scales its sample up to a national injury estimate. We use CRSS to estimate how many people are injured for every death FARS records. We always label that number an estimate. CRSS covers 2016 through 2023 in our current build. It doesn't break out to the state or county level.

Population data

Our rates show deaths for every 100,000 residents. They use U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for the matching year and place, whether that's a state or a county.

How we access this data

We download the public files NHTSA and the Census Bureau publish. We calculate every number ourselves from the raw records. We don't rely on outside summaries or press releases for the numbers we report.

Requesting the underlying data

Journalists, researchers, and public officials can request the exact cut of data behind any number on this site. Reach us through our about page, or see our methodology for how we build each number.