Be wary of the Millennials on the road.
That is the take away from personal injury law specialists John Foy & Associates after analyzing 2022 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), to find the number of drivers involved in crashes by different age groups.
Millennials, at a rate of 50,291 drivers in crashes per 1 million population, accounted for 30.3 percent of all crashes. Without accounting for population, there were 3,423,414 drivers born between 1981 and 1996 involved in crashes throughout 2022, with 18,816 of those being fatal.
Among Millennials, 27-year-olds were found to have the highest amount of drivers involved in crashes, at 247,934 drivers – 7.24 percent of all crashes involving a Millennial driver.
Breakdown By Generation
“The findings, unfortunately, show a clear trend, with younger drivers seen to be far more at risk on the roads than older drivers,” John Foy, of John Foy & Associates commented on the findings. “It’s interesting to observe the higher incidence of crashes among Millennials, followed by Generation Z and Generation X, while Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation exhibit relatively lower rates.”
As for those other age cohorts, Generation Z ranked second with a rate of 38,221 drivers in crashes per 1 million population – equaling out to 23 percent of all crashes. There were 2,631,955 crashes involving drivers born between 1997 and 2012 in total throughout 2022, with 11,490 of those turning out to be fatal.
The age most at-risk within Generation Z, is 19-year-olds with 299,376 crashes recorded , accounting for 11.4 percent of all crashes involving a Generation Z driver.
Gen X and Boomers
Generation X—those born between 1965 and 1980—places third on the list, seeing a rate of 36,799 drivers in crashes per 1 million population. As a percentage, Generation X drivers account for 22.2% of all crashes.
Of the total 2,444,515 crashes involving a Generation X driver, 13,953 of those were found to be fatal – the second highest of any generation behind Millennials. Within this age group, 41-year-olds were the most at-risk age with 189,205 crashes or 7.7 percent of all Generation X crashes.
In fourth place are Baby Boomers, with a rate of 22,509 drivers in crashes per 1 million population with 11,207 of those being fatal. Within the Baby Boomer age bracket (those born 1946 to 1980), 59-year-olds were most likely to be involved in a crash (137,221 as they accounts for 8.1 percent of all driver crashes in the age group.
Concerns About 19-Year-Olds
The Silent Generation, born between 1928 and 1945, had the lowest rate of with 13,450 drivers in crashes per 1 million population and just 2,681 of those proving to be fatal. Seventy-seven year-olds were the age found to be most at-risk, with 41,847 (14.2 percent) involved in crashes.
The single highest at-risk age across every generation was found to be 19-year-olds, with 299,376 involved in crashes and 1,215 of those drivers in crashes that proved to be fatal.
The highest number of fatal accidents were 22-year-olds, with 1,382 drivers of that age involved in fatal crashes.
“These findings underscore the importance of understanding generational differences in driving behavior and the need for tailored interventions to address road safety concerns effectively,” said Foy.
Data was taken NHTSA’s Motor Vehicle Crash Data Querying and Reporting service, with crashes broken down by age. Ages were then grouped by generation, with population data from the US Census Bureau being used to determine rates per 1 million population.
