North Dakota's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
North Dakota’s highway system ranks 6th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a three-spot decline from last year’s ranking of 3rd.
In safety and condition categories, North Dakota’s highways rank 7th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 3rd in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 23rd in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 24th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 42nd in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 26th in Rural Fatality Rate, and 2nd in Urban Fatality Rate. North Dakota ranks 2nd out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 10 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, North Dakota ranks 30th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. North Dakota ranks 8th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. North Dakota’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 9th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Maintenance Disbursements (14th to 8th) and Administrative Disbursements (15th to 9th). North Dakota worsened the most in Other Disbursements (11th to 29th).
When compared to its neighboring states, North Dakota’s overall highway performance is better than Minnesota’s (11th), Wyoming’s (20th), Montana’s (22nd), South Dakota’s (28th), and Nebraska’s (29th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, North Dakota ranks better than South Dakota (28th) and Alaska (50th). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, North Dakota should focus on reducing Structurally Deficient Bridges and reducing Capital and Bridge Disbursements,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “While the state performs strongly in Urban Fatality Rate (2nd), Urban Interstate Pavement Condition (3rd), and Urbanized Area Congestion (2nd), its weaker bridge and spending rankings highlight areas for improvement.”
Reason Foundation’s 29th Annual Highway Report evaluates the cost-effectiveness and performance of state-controlled highways across 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, congestion, and spending. In the performance categories, a rank of 1 indicates the best outcome—for example, the lowest fatality rate or the best pavement quality—while a rank of 50 represents the worst outcomes. In the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 1 means the state spends the least, while a rank of 50 indicates the highest relative spending. The report’s data are primarily based on information each state submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for 2023, supplemented by deficient bridge data from Better Roads and Bridges and congestion data from INRIX. For full methodology and data sources, see the complete 29th Annual Highway Report.