Your odds of being killed by an animal in the U.S. are incredibly low.
An academic analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data covering all animal-involved deaths from 2008 to 2015 found that Americans have a 1 in 1.6 million chance of dying yearly due to animal interaction.
The most common culprits when those tragedies occur aren't the alligators, scorpions, or snakes you may expect and fear the most—they're deer.
As people continue to build homes and communities where deer and other animals have lived for millennia, these creatures are more likely to run into the middle of the road. They caused about 1.8 million vehicular accidents over the 12 months ending in June 2023.
Accidents involving deer are more common between October and December, which is deer mating season. The odds of hitting a deer are higher around dawn and during the night when deer are most active and roads are dark. Deer-vehicle crashes are dangerous and expensive, costing drivers north of $4,000 or more depending on the vehicle and the extent of the damage.
Stacker used State Farm's annual animal collision study to rank all 50 states and Washington D.C. by the chance a driver there will hit an animal. State Farm based its rankings on claims filed between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, and the number of licensed drivers in each state.
State Farm's claims analysis also found that the 2022-2023 period was safer for drivers and animals on the road than the year prior, with animal-involved collision claims dropping by about 100,000. The odds that a driver collided with any animal on the road and resulted in a claim was about 1 in 127 over the year. The four victims other than deer rounding out the top five of car-animal collisions were rodents, dogs, raccoons, and unidentified animals.
It may come as no surprise that the more rural areas of Appalachia and the Midwest had some of the highest car-animal crash odds in the country, while the desert Southwest had some of the lowest.
Are you curious to see if your state topped the list? Read on on to find out—and remember always to keep your eyes on the road, no matter the odds.
