- Montana has the most automobiles per capita at 459 per 1,000 residents; Delaware has the fewest at 140 per 1,000—more than a 3-to-1 spread.
- The national average is 285 automobiles per 1,000 residents, roughly one automobile for every 3.5 people.
- Montana's total registered-vehicle count (including trucks, buses, and motorcycles) is a genuine statistical outlier—2,161 vehicles per 1,000 residents, more than 40% above the next-highest state—driven mainly by non-resident vehicle registrations, not local car ownership.
- The five states with the fewest automobiles per capita are all small, dense, or heavily urbanized: Delaware, Alaska, Kansas, D.C., and Maine.
01 Introduction
Montana has the most automobiles per capita at 459 per 1,000 residents; Delaware has the fewest at 140—more than a 3-to-1 spread, against a national average of 285 per 1,000. The Federal Highway Administration's Table MV-1 tracks total vehicle registrations for every state; paired with the Census Bureau's population estimates, it's possible to calculate a real, verifiable answer. This article ranks all 50 states and D.C. by automobiles per capita, and separately by all registered motor vehicles (including trucks, buses, and motorcycles)—because, as this article explains, those two rankings tell noticeably different stories.
FHWA, Highway Statistics, Table MV-1, 2024 data year (published January 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates02 Automobiles Per Capita by State
Using FHWA's "Automobiles" registration category (private, commercial, and publicly owned passenger cars, excluding trucks, buses, and motorcycles) divided by each state's mid-2025 Census population estimate, the following states have the most and fewest automobiles per capita.
FHWA, Table MV-1, "AUTOMOBILES" total column, 2024 data year; U.S. Census Bureau, NST-EST2025-POP, population as of July 1, 2025| Rank | State | Automobiles | Population (2025) | Per 1,000 Residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montana | 525,226 | 1,144,694 | 459 |
| 2 | Alabama | 1,937,330 | 5,193,088 | 373 |
| 3 | California | 12,979,522 | 39,355,309 | 330 |
| 4 | New York | 6,474,059 | 20,002,427 | 324 |
| 5 | Ohio | 3,805,614 | 11,900,510 | 320 |
| … | ||||
| 47 | Maine | 312,473 | 1,414,874 | 221 |
| 48 | District of Columbia | 150,476 | 693,645 | 217 |
| 49 | Kansas | 594,786 | 2,977,220 | 200 |
| 50 | Alaska | 122,678 | 737,270 | 166 |
| 51 | Delaware | 148,493 | 1,059,952 | 140 |
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Use the Calculator03 All Registered Vehicles Per Capita
FHWA also publishes a broader "All Motor Vehicles" total that adds trucks (a category spanning everything from pickups to heavy commercial trucks), buses, and motorcycles to the automobile count. Ranked this way, the results shift substantially—because commercial and agricultural vehicle registration is concentrated very differently than personal car ownership.
FHWA, Table MV-1, "ALL MOTOR VEHICLES" total column, 2024 data year| Rank | State | All Vehicles | Per 1,000 Residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montana | 2,473,269 | 2,161 |
| 2 | South Dakota | 1,406,923 | 1,505 |
| 3 | Wyoming | 877,152 | 1,490 |
| 4 | North Dakota | 1,076,690 | 1,347 |
| 5 | Iowa | 3,856,647 | 1,191 |
| … | |||
| 48 | Kansas | 2,007,586 | 674 |
| 49 | New Jersey | 6,256,097 | 655 |
| 50 | District of Columbia | 302,647 | 436 |
| 51 | Delaware | 447,094 | 422 |
04 Montana's Outlier Status, Explained
Montana tops both rankings, but its lead in the "all vehicles" metric is extreme enough to warrant a closer look. Montana's registered motorcycle count is 447,943—for a state with only 1.14 million residents. That works out to roughly 1 registered motorcycle for every 2.6 residents, far above comparably rural states like Wyoming (28,613 motorcycles, 1 per 20.6 residents) or South Dakota (147,254, 1 per 6.4 residents).
FHWA, Table MV-1, "MOTORCYCLES" total column, 2024 data year| State | Population | Motorcycles | Residents per Motorcycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montana | 1,144,694 | 447,943 | 2.6 |
| South Dakota | 935,094 | 147,254 | 6.4 |
| Wyoming | 588,753 | 28,613 | 20.6 |
This is why this article leads with the automobiles-only ranking rather than the all-vehicles total: automobiles are far less affected by this registration pattern than trucks and motorcycles, making the automobiles-per-capita figures in Section 02 a more reliable proxy for actual resident car ownership.
05 Methodology and Caveats
This analysis combines two real government datasets that were not designed to be joined, so a few caveats apply:
FHWA, Highway Statistics, Table MV-1; U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates- Slight vintage mismatch. FHWA's registration counts are for the 2024 data year (published January 2026); population figures are the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 estimate. These are the most current versions of each dataset available, roughly a year apart.
- Registration is not the same as residence. As Montana demonstrates, a vehicle registered in a state is not necessarily owned by, or kept by, a resident of that state. This effect is small for most states but substantial for a handful of low-tax, low-population states.
- FHWA's "Trucks" category is broad. It spans everything from personal pickups to heavy commercial trucks and tractor-trailers, not just the "light truck" SUVs and pickups discussed in typical consumer vehicle coverage.
- Some states' totals rely on FHWA estimation procedures rather than directly reported state data (noted in FHWA's own footnotes for several states), which can introduce small inconsistencies in category classification between states.
06 Data Sources
Every figure in this article comes from a U.S. government source. No proprietary, estimated, or third-party data was used.
- Federal Highway Administration. Highway Statistics Series, Table MV-1: State Motor Vehicle Registrations, 2024 data year (published January 2026). fhwa.dot.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau. Vintage 2025 Population Estimates, "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for the United States, Regions, States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025" (NST-EST2025-POP). census.gov