articleThe Brief An IIHS report shows Mississippi had the highest traffic fatality rate per capita and per miles driven. Mississippi’s per capita rate was over five times higher than the leading state. A state-by-state breakdown from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows a wide gap in per capita traffic fatality rates in 2024 across the country, highlighted by the gap between Mississippi and Rhode Island. In fact, Mississippi’s fatality rate was more than 25% higher than Arkansas’s, the second-highest state. Mississippi still has the highest fatality rate, but the gap to the next highest state, Arizona, is much smaller (1.81 vs. 1.74 per 100 million miles).