Female Drivers in the United States, 1963–2010: From a Minority to a Majority?

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the changes in the relative proportions of male and female drivers between 1963 and 2010.

Method: The analysis used data from the Federal Highway Administration.

Results: During the period examined, the proportion of male drivers has gradually decreased. In 1963, males represented 60.4 percent of all drivers. Males became a minority in 2005. In 2010, they constituted 49.7 percent. A consideration of both the percentage of drivers by gender and the average annual miles driven by gender revealed that in 1963 about 76 percent of drivers on the road were males, which dropped to about 59 percent by 2010.

Conclusions: Currently, females with a driver's license are slightly outnumbering males. However, because females drive less than males, the overall likelihood that a given driver on the road today is a female is still less than 50 percent.

Keywords:

• driver licensing
• male drivers
• female drivers

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by Sustainable Worldwide Transportation (http://www.umich.edu/~umtriswt).