New York ranked best state for teen drivers in 2021

NEW YORK (WWTI) – As summer has the highest rate of teens obtaining new driver’s licenses compared to all other seasons, driving in New York has been determined to be the safest for younger motorists.

The latest study, 2021’s Best and Worst States for Teen Drivers, conducted by the personal-finance website WalletHub, determined the safest and least costly driving environments for teenagers in the United States.

The study compared the 50 states based on 23 key metrics which included the number of teen driver fatalities, average cost of car repairs and the presence of impaired- driving laws.

New York State was determined to be the safest state overall for teen drivers. Following New York in the top three were Oregon and Connecticut. The top three least safe states were Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota.

Findings that contributed to New York’s high ranking included it having the highest presence of occupant-protection laws, highest presence of distracted-driving/ texting-while-driving laws, highest presence of impaired-driving laws and the highest number of teen driver’s graduated licensing program provisions.

Additional findings for New York included:

4th lowest driver fatalities per 100,000 teens
6th lowest teen DUI’s per 100,000 teens
16th lowest average cost of car repairs

Full rankings of the 50 states are included in the chart below:

Overall Rank	State	Total Score	Safety	Economic Environment	Driving Laws
1	New York	64.92	1	31	1
2	Oregon	59.72	4	26	5
3	Connecticut	59.01	7	17	25
4	Alaska	58.15	3	39	13
5	Massachusetts	57.85	6	21	37
6	Michigan	57.62	14	1	42
7	Minnesota	57.51	12	5	40
8	Texas	57.20	15	9	21
9	Maryland	57.05	5	33	16
10	New Jersey	56.81	2	43	26
11	Washington	56.69	11	38	2
12	Illinois	56.19	13	35	6
13	Maine	55.82	23	8	28
14	Ohio	55.69	17	2	48
15	Florida	55.40	21	10	33
16	Kentucky	55.32	27	4	17
17	North Carolina	54.98	19	20	28
18	Oklahoma	54.74	30	3	19
19	Delaware	54.52	26	29	4
20	Rhode Island	54.07	20	32	9
21	North Dakota	53.43	16	19	43
22	Louisiana	52.97	37	12	3
23	Hawaii	52.66	25	25	22
24	Pennsylvania	51.86	24	30	36
25	Wisconsin	51.50	28	18	34
26	West Virginia	51.43	36	14	11
27	Georgia	51.33	10	45	23
28	Virginia	50.38	9	46	30
29	Kansas	50.17	41	7	19
30	Iowa	49.79	33	15	39
31	Utah	48.92	18	47	15
32	Tennessee	48.83	29	41	8
33	Vermont	48.77	32	13	45
34	New Mexico	48.68	35	34	7
35	California	47.99	8	50	10
36	Indiana	47.57	40	16	34
37	Arizona	47.56	31	42	18
38	Colorado	47.48	38	36	12
39	Nevada	46.77	22	48	24
40	Alabama	45.59	39	40	14
41	South Carolina	44.75	34	44	31
42	New Hampshire	44.49	42	28	41
43	Arkansas	43.83	47	6	27
44	Nebraska	43.63	43	23	46
45	Mississippi	42.34	48	11	32
46	Missouri	40.61	44	24	50
47	Montana	38.77	46	27	49
48	South Dakota	38.62	49	22	44
49	Idaho	35.64	45	49	37
50	Wyoming	34.68	50	37	47