Mississippi's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Mississippi’s highway system ranks 18th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is consistent with Mississippi’s ranking of 18th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Mississippi’s highways rank 35th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 40th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 32nd in urban arterial pavement condition, 38th in rural arterial pavement condition, 28th in structurally deficient bridges, 42nd in urban fatality rate, and 40th in rural fatality rate.
Mississippi ranks 6th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend seven hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Mississippi ranks 13th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Mississippi ranks 9th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Mississippi’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 8th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urbanized area congestion (27th to 6th) and other fatality rate (49th to 30th).
Mississippi worsened the most in rural arterial pavement condition (23rd to 38th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Mississippi’s overall highway performance is better than Arkansas’ (28th) and Louisiana’s (46th), but worse than Tennessee’s (5th) and Alabama’s (17th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Mississippi ranks ahead of Kansas (22nd) and New Mexico (38th).
Mississippi’s highway system ranks 18th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 18th in last year’s report, and was 25th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Mississippi should focus on improving its rural Interstate and arterial pavement condition. The state ranks in the bottom 15 in both categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing fatality rates, both urban and rural, should also be a focus for Mississippi, which ranks in the bottom 15 in both categories.”
Reason Foundation’s 28th Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, and spending. In the performance categories, ranking first implies the state has the best or lowest fatality rate and its road pavement is in the best condition. A ranking of 50th in performance categories means the state has the worst fatality rates or pavement conditions. In simplified terms, in the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 50 means the state spends more money, and a first-place ranking means the state spends less money than other states in that category.
The report’s data are primarily information each state directly reported to the Federal Highway Administration for 2022. Better Roads and Bridges provides the deficient bridge data, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute provides the traffic congestion data.
Please see the complete 28th Annual Highway Report for detailed methodology and a comprehensive list of data sources.