If you feel like you're constantly surrounded by subpar drivers, you might be onto something. Car-related deaths have risen a staggering 14 percent since 2015. A report from the III shows that car accidents rates are going up, and so too is the average cost of a car accident.

What's behind these disturbing trends? Two major factors:

The stats are clear: America's got a driving problem. But America is a big country. We wanted to know how each state stacks up against each other. Who's worst, who's best, and who's average when it comes to driving? Find out below.

Rankings

Based on the methodology detailed at the end of this study, we ranked states from worst to best. In other words, the first ranked state has the worst drivers, and the 50th ranked state has the best drivers. To simplify it, we've added a color code to the rankings and map. States with bad drivers are marked with darker shades of blue, while states with good drivers are marked with lighter shades of green:

Ranking (Worst) State 1 California 2 Minnesota 3 Utah 4 South Carolina 5 Washington 6 Nebraska 7 Maine 8 Virginia 9 Idaho 10 North Dakota 11 Georgia 12 Vermont 13 Kansas 14 Ohio 15 Delaware 16 New Jersey 17 Colorado 18 Oregon 19 Connecticut 20 Maryland 21 Wyoming 22 New Mexico 23 Wisconsin 24 New Hampshire 25 North Carolina 26 Louisiana 27 Iowa 28 Alabama 29 Texas 30 Missouri 31 Massachusetts 32 Indiana 33 Pennsylvania 34 Tennessee 35 Alaska 36 Hawaii 37 New York 38 Montana 39 Kentucky 40 Arizona 41 Oklahoma 42 West Virginia 43 Illinois 44 South Dakota 45 Nevada 46 Arkansas 47 Michigan 48 Mississippi 49 Florida 50 Rhode Island

The Worst

The Best

Rhode Island: 2016's best driving state is now repeating its status as 2017's best driving state! Congratulations to Rhode Island on the back-to-back title. Propelling this repeat is the state's top marks for accidents, speeding, citations, and fatalities. Rhode Island's only blip, interestingly, is the fact that they're the 13th worst state for DUIs. But their apparent penchant for buzzed driving is not enough to overshadow their excellent performance in every other category.

Florida: If you think the eponymous Florida Man means Florida terrible drivers, think again. Like Rhode Island, Florida held down their spot as the second-best drivers in America. The Sunshine State performed well in every category except fatalities, where the state ranks 21st worst.

Mississippi: Life ain't easy in Mississippi. While the Hospitality State is known for being, well, hospitable, it also has an unfortunate reputation as a state with large waistlines and empty wallets. But it's not all bad news for Mississippi, as they earned their place as the 3rd best driving state in America. Good marks in accidents, speeding, citations, and the lowest DUI rating on our list were enough to make Mississippi 3rd best.

Michigan: America's spiritual home of automobiles is also home to some solid drivers. Michigan maintains their spot on our list as America's 4th best drivers. Is it any surprise that the home of The Motor City has good drivers? Michigan performed admirably in every category save for one – DUIs. They were the 14th worst state for DUIs in 2016, and climbed to 7th this year. If Michigan drivers can slow down the drinking and driving, they'll have a chance of cracking the top three in 2018.

Arkansas: Jumping one spot from 6th to 5th is Arkansas. It seems that The Natural State's beauty extends from the outdoors to the roadways. Arkansas scored extremely well in accidents, speeding, DUIs, and citations. The only thing preventing them from earning a better ranking is their high fatality rate. That's right – Arkansas ranked 13th for fatalities. But aside from the occasional vehicular homicide, it appears that Arkansas drivers are better than most.

Who's Better – Republicans or Democrats?

The 2016 election has stoked a partisan divide in America. To settle the debate, we decided to compare the driving rankings of red states and blue states. So, who's more competent behind the wheel?

The verdict is clear: according to our rankings, Republican states drive better than their Democratic counterparts. Red states earned a median ranking of 21st, while blue states came in at 28th. Additionally, of the 20 worst driving states, 12 are Democrat-leaning and 8 are Republican-leaning.

Three of the five best driving states are deep in the heart of the south, the most conservative region in the country. On the other hand, of the five worst driving states, two (California and Washington) are located on the ultra-liberal West-Coast, plus consistently-blue Minnesota. Congratulations, conservatives. It seems that your political leanings lend well to cautious driving.

How Bad Driving Affects Your Car Insurance Rates

Whether you live in one of the states with the best drivers or one of the states with tons of drivers the worst drivers, you need a strong auto insurance policy. This is especially true if you drive in California, Minnesota, Utah, South Carolina, Washington, or one of the bad driving states. Even if you're a great driver, living in an area with bad drivers makes your insurance premium more expensive. Why? If you're surrounded by bad drivers, you're more likely to get into an accident. Auto insurance companies use your zip code to determine the risk-likelihood in providing coverage for you.

What can you do to combat this? A lot of things, from bundling insurance plans to shopping around and comparing auto insurance quotes from different companies.

And if you're one of the bad drivers? Luckily, you have a few options. But your best bet, is to look for cheap high-risk car insurance. That way you can stay on the road until the points come off your driver's license.

Study Methodology

We sampled incident data (with more than two million data points) from the users of our website and juxtaposed it to Federal Highway Administration fatality data. To quantify overall driver standards for comparison, we weighted various incident totals for each state with its occurrence percentage. The rankings are a sum of weighted means calculated from these incidents: