Best and worst states for teen drivers: Florida rises in rankings, compared to 2024 list

Car accidents are one of the leading causes of death for teenagers in the U.S., according to the CDC. This, and the fact that they’re newer to driving, makes young drivers the most expensive age group to insure when it comes to car insurance, resulting in billions of dollars in medical expenses and work loss each year.

And Florida isn’t the safest state for teens who are already driving. The personal finance company WalletHub recently released its 2025 list of the best and worst states for teen drivers, and Florida ranks near the middle of the list.

Although it’s just shy of a top 20 ranking, the Sunshine State performed much better in this year's rankings than it did on the 2024 version of the list.

Here’s where Florida ranks on WalletHub’s list of the best and worst states for teen drivers, where it ranked on last year’s list and why.

What age group are the riskiest drivers?

According to the CDC, “The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens ages 16–19 than among any other age group. Teen drivers in this age group have a fatal crash rate almost three times as high as drivers ages 20 and older per mile driven.”

Here’s the CDC’s list of teens that are at an especially high risk of car accidents:

• Males: “The motor vehicle crash death rate for male drivers ages 16–19 years was three times as high as the death rate for female drivers in the same age group in 2020.”

• Teens driving with teen or young adult passengers: “The presence of teen or young adult passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers. This risk increases with each additional teen or young adult passenger.”

• Newly licensed teens: “Crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure. For example, 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.”

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Best, worst states for teen drivers

To identify the states with the highest and lowest risks for teen drivers, WalletHub compared all 50 states across more than 20 metrics in three categories: safety, economic environment and driving laws.

For the second year in a row, New York took first place on WalletHub’s list of the safest states for teen drivers, with the second-fewest teen driver fatalities per capita, the most driving schools per capita and optimal driving laws.

“New York is the best state for teen drivers, despite traffic congestion in its biggest cities, in large part due to the fact that it has the second-fewest teen driver fatalities per capita,” the study says.

“In addition, New York has the fourth-lowest percentage of drivers who use phones while driving and the third-lowest prevalence of poor turning.”

Here’s WalletHub’s list of the top 10 safest states for teen drivers in 2025:

1. New York

2. Oregon

3. New Jersey

4. West Virginia

5. Kentucky

6. Rhode Island

7. Indiana

8. Massachusetts

9. Washington

10. California

Here’s WalletHub’s 2024 list:

1. New York

2. Oregon

3. New Jersey

4. Washington

5. Massachusetts

6. Connecticut

7. Alaska

8. Kentucky

9. West Virginia

10. California

Here’s WalletHub’s list of the 10 riskiest states for teen drivers in 2025:

1. Montana

2. Missouri

3. Wyoming

4. Mississippi

5. North Dakota

6. Nebraska

7. Alabama

8. Idaho

9. South Dakota

10. Arkansas

Florida’s teen driver safety ranking

Although Florida ranked toward the middle of WalletHub’s list, it placed 10 spots higher than on the 2024 list, when it took 33rd place. This year, Florida took 23rd place on the 2025 version of the rankings list.

Here’s how Florida ranked in some of WalletHub’s key metrics:

• Overall Rank: 23rd

• 34th – Teen driver fatalities per 100,000 teens

• 4th – Teen DUIs per 100,000 teens

• 36th – Average cost of car repairs

• 1st – Presence of distracted-driving/texting-while-driving laws

• 15th – Premium increase after adding teen driver to parent’s policy

• 15th – Provision of teen driver’s graduated licensing program laws

• 32nd – Vehicle miles traveled per capita

• 29th – Presence of occupant-protection laws

• 18th – Quality of roads

• 23rd – Presence of impaired-driving laws

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Here’s how Florida ranked in some of the key metrics for the 2024 ranking:

• Overall rank: 33rd

• 33rd – Teen driver fatalities per 100,000 teens

• 6th – Teen DUIs per 100,000 teens

• 36th – Average cost of car repairs

• 1st – Presence of distracted-driving/texting-while-driving laws

• 19th – Premium increase after adding teen driver to parent’s policy

• 15th – Provision of teen driver’s graduated licensing program laws

• 27th – Vehicle miles traveled per capita

• 29th – Presence of occupant-protection laws

• 15th – Quality of roads

• 23rd – Presence of impaired-driving laws

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida ranks higher for teen driver safety than in 2024, study says