{"chart":{"slug":"unbelted-traffic-deaths","title":"What share of people killed in cars weren't wearing a seat belt?","takeaway":"In 2024, 48% of the people killed in passenger cars, SUVs, pickups and vans weren't wearing a seat belt, counting only those whose belt use is known. The share has fallen as more people buckle up: it was over 90% in the early 1980s, before most states had seat belt laws, and about 60% in 2000.","topic":"Road safety","chart_type":"line","ranking":false,"x_label":"Year","y_label":"Percent of occupants killed (known belt use)","unit":"percent","points_count":43,"source":{"name":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)","url":"https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2024-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.673Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths/embed","credit":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths)","credit_html":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"1982","value":97.2},{"label":"1983","value":96.5},{"label":"1984","value":95.1},{"label":"1985","value":90.2},{"label":"1986","value":85.2},{"label":"1987","value":81.9},{"label":"1988","value":79.7},{"label":"1989","value":78.3},{"label":"1990","value":76.9},{"label":"1991","value":73.6},{"label":"1992","value":71.2},{"label":"1993","value":68.1},{"label":"1994","value":65.9},{"label":"1995","value":65.3},{"label":"1996","value":63.8},{"label":"1997","value":62.9},{"label":"1998","value":61.6},{"label":"1999","value":62.1},{"label":"2000","value":60.2},{"label":"2001","value":59.5},{"label":"2002","value":58.7},{"label":"2003","value":56.4},{"label":"2004","value":55.4},{"label":"2005","value":55.4},{"label":"2006","value":55.2},{"label":"2007","value":54.0},{"label":"2008","value":54.7},{"label":"2009","value":53.1},{"label":"2010","value":51.5},{"label":"2011","value":51.9},{"label":"2012","value":51.6},{"label":"2013","value":49.4},{"label":"2014","value":48.6},{"label":"2015","value":48.1},{"label":"2016","value":48.0},{"label":"2017","value":46.8},{"label":"2018","value":47.1},{"label":"2019","value":46.6},{"label":"2020","value":50.9},{"label":"2021","value":50.0},{"label":"2022","value":49.8},{"label":"2023","value":49.3},{"label":"2024","value":48.4}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/unbelted-traffic-deaths)"}