New data released by the personal finance company WalletHub shows which states are the best, and worst, for teenage drivers, based a number of metrics including safety and costs.
At the top of the list, New York ranked as the best state for teen drivers, scoring highly for its safety and driving laws, despite the traffic congestion in its bigger cities.
Along with having the second-lowest teen fatality rate, it also has the fourth-lowest percentage of drivers who use their phone while driving.
Why It Matters
Teen drivers make up a significant proportion of road fatalities each year and are "substantially over-involved in crashes" compared to adult drivers, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
In 2021, drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 had the highest involvement in fatal crashes of any age group. That year, 2,116 drivers ages 15 to 20 were killed and an estimated 203,256 injured in motor vehicle crashes.
What To Know
Also high on the list was Oregon, with its strict driving laws and some of the highest fines in the country for running a red light or not wearing a seat belt. As a result, more than 96 percent of teens in the state wear seat belts.
New Jersey, ranking third, also has strict driving laws and the third-most driving schools per capita. It also has high insurance premiums for high-risk drivers, which helps to enforce safer driving in the state, and a low percentage of teen drivers who drive after drinking alcohol or who text while driving.
At the bottom of the list, Wyoming scored poorly for safety and driving laws, as did Missouri and Montana. While all three states had slightly better rankings for economic factors, they not only sat in the bottom three spots in the overall rankings but also for the safety and driving law rankings, too.
Reasons included that Wyoming and Montana had the highest rate of teen driver fatalities, as well as the highest percentages of teens who drive under the influence of alcohol.
In order to generate the rankings, WalletHub analyzed a number of metrics across the three categories—safety, economic environment and driving laws.
These metrics, which each had a different weighting on the overall score, included teen driver fatalities, teen drink driving, quality of roads, cost of speeding tickets, presence of certain driving laws and many others.
Safety as a category had the largest weighting in the ranking, making up 50 of the 100 points each state could get.
Economic environment metrics made up 20 points, while driving laws made up 30 points.
What People Are Saying
Johnathon Ehsani, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University, told Newsweek: "Some of this comes down to the methods they used. If someone else had used a different set of metrics, the rankings might look different. That said, just based on overall fatal crash rate data, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts are very low compared to the others. This means that it's not necessarily a reflection on the teen drivers but of the overall safety environment for all drivers.
"Graduated driver licensing laws work by reducing driving in the highest risk situations. They also give the teens time gain experience in lower risk conditions, like practicing with a parent. In most states these laws also mean that teens get licensed at an older age where they might have developed more maturity. Graduated driver licensing combined with good training and driver testing are essential for safety."
He added: "The average speeds that people can drive in [North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming] is much higher than say in New Jersey or Boston because there are fewer people on the road, longer distances, and so these higher fatalities are not just limited to the teen driving population but apply also to all drivers in those states."
Anuj Pradhan, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Massachusetts, told Newsweek: "Oregon has a zero-tolerance cellphone policy for under-18 drivers and curfews. New York has mandatory supervised hours and pre-licensing courses and some of the strictest distracted- and impaired-driving laws in the nation. West Virginia enforces a passenger ban for the first year, a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, and texting bans.
"These laws are very important for teen safety because they are designed to target some of the riskiest conditions for teens—inexperience, distraction, impairment, and nighttime driving. These conditions are all proven to raise crash and fatality risk for teens, so implementation of these policies goes a long way towards protecting teen drivers."
"Teen driver fatalities are highest in [North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming] likely because of specific geographical characteristics. For example, the rural, high-speed roads with limited safety infrastructure and slow emergency response times can contribute to teens driving long distances, increasing exposure to risk. It is also likely to contribute towards engaging in speeding, impaired driving, and driving unbelted behaviors.
"Crashes may also be worsened by reliance on older vehicles without modern safety features, plus the amplifying risks of inexperience, nighttime driving, and peer passengers. These factors can contribute towards conditions where crashes are not only more likely but also more deadly for teen drivers."
Sheila "Charlie" Klauer, research scientist and lead of the Applied Driver Assessment, Performance and Training (ADAPT) Group at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, told Newsweek: "Graduated driver's licensing laws are one of the key items that research has shown impacts fatality rates amongst teen drivers. From 16 to 18 years of age is when the graduated driver's licensing restrictions are most effective at keeping teen drivers safe.
"New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts all have slightly older teen age requirements for both obtaining a learners permit and age of provisional licensure with accompanying passenger restrictions and nighttime driving restrictions. In comparison to the states ranked higher in safety, Wyoming allows younger drivers to obtain an unrestricted license with passenger and nighttime restrictions ending six months after provisional licensure. Montana also has younger-aged drivers as well. Data has shown that the crash rate for novice drivers is four times higher than for adult drivers.
"Additionally, [North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming] also have mountainous topography, extreme weather conditions, and very sparse public transportation options, all of which can add to the risk of fatalities. Without public transportation, teens must drive in order to get to school, work and activities."
Panos D. Prevedouros, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, told WalletHub: "The crash risk of teenagers is directly related to their inattention, distraction and overconfidence, combined with an undeveloped frontal cortex, which is responsible for more reliable assessment of risk, particularly for males younger than about 25 years of age. All four are hard to control. Safety schools help drive the point across.
"The CDC reports that 'crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure. Data indicate that the crash rate per mile driven is about 1.5 times as high for 16-year-old drivers as it is for 18-, 19-year-old drivers.' Increasing the age of eligibility for driving is supported by the national statistical data on traffic safety for teenagers."
What Happens Next
Some states have been trying to implement laws to increase safety for teens, and all, drivers. In July, Virginia passed a law requiring all passengers to wear seat belts in motor vehicles. Earlier this month, South Carolina passed a law to restrict motorists from holding or supporting mobile electronic devices while operating a vehicle.
Update 8/27/25, 10:25 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Johnathon Ehsani.
Update 8/27/25, 12:16 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Anuj Pradhan.
Update 8/28/25, 3:50 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Sheila "Charlie" Klauer.
