TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa recorded 100 pedestrian deaths from 2020 through 2024, translating to an average of 20 fatalities per year and ranking the city 12th in pedestrian death rates among the 50 most populous U.S. cities, according to a recent analysis by legal funding firm High Rise Financial.
The study calculated Tampa’s annual pedestrian fatality rate at 4.77 deaths per 100,000 residents based on a population of 419,635. That rate is roughly 1.3 times the 50-city average of 3.78 per 100,000 and 2.5 times higher than the average of the country’s 10 safest cities for walkers.
Researchers compiled the findings using crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) alongside city population metrics from the World Population Review.
While Tampa ranked 45th in total population and 29th in absolute pedestrian deaths among the cities evaluated, its per-capita rate pushed it into the top 15. Over the five-year period, fatalities in Tampa ranged from a low of 14 in 2020 to a high of 27 in 2021.
Florida placed three cities in the study’s top 17 for per-capita pedestrian fatalities. Miami ranked 10th with a rate of 5.16 per 100,000 residents, while Tampa ranked 12th.
Memphis, Tennessee, recorded the highest overall rate in the nation at 10.59 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed by Tucson, Arizona (8.03), and Albuquerque, New Mexico (7.89).
By contrast, the lowest per-capita pedestrian fatality rates were recorded in Boston, Massachusetts, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, which tied for the bottom spot with rates of 1.37 per 100,000 residents.
New York City, despite averaging 118.4 pedestrian fatalities annually due to its large population, posted a per-capita rate of 1.39.
The study focused strictly on city-proper boundaries and five-year arithmetic averages of FARS data from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2024. The research methodology did not adjust for external factors such as traffic volume, road infrastructure, speed limits, transit access, or non-resident visitors.
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