American Driving Survey: 2025

Introduction

This Research Brief provides highlights from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s 2025 American Driving Survey, which quantifies the daily driving of the U.S. population in 2025 and compares results with previous years. The Research Brief explores trends in driving behavior by vehicle age and vehicle type, including differences across population groups.  New analyses examine the characteristics of road trips, providing a better understanding of long-distance driving.

Methodology

Members of a pre-recruited research panel were invited to participate in an online or telephone interview and were asked to report basic information about all travel completed on the day before the interview. Approximately 5,100 participants were interviewed each year, with interviews distributed approximately evenly across all days of the year. The survey was administered in both English and Spanish, primarily online, with telephone interviews also provided to increase coverage of the population.

Estimates of daily driving were calculated using the mean number of trips, minutes, and miles reported by respondents. Trip-level characteristics, including the proportion of trips by category and the average minutes and miles per trip, were estimated using a dataset containing all reported driving trips. Characteristics by road trips, vehicle age, including the proportion of trips and average trip duration and distance, were estimated using trips for which respondents reported the vehicle year. Annual estimates of total trips, minutes, and miles driven nationwide were calculated by multiplying daily driver-level averages by 365 and then by the estimated number of drivers in the United States.

Statistics reported in this Research Brief are based on interviews conducted between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2025. Data were weighted to account for each respondent’s probability of being invited to participate and to align the demographic characteristics of the respondents with those of the U.S. population.

Key Findings

• 95.0% of U.S. residents ages 16 and older reported driving at least occasionally in 2025, a slight increase from 2024.
• In 2025, drivers made an average of 2.40 driving trips per day, spent 59.3 minutes driving, and traveled 28.6 miles daily.
• Projecting these results to the national population, drivers collectively made approximately 232 billion trips, spent 95 billion hours driving, and traveled 2.76 trillion miles in 2025.
• Travel patterns continued to vary across population groups:
  • Drivers ages 35–49 reported the most daily trips, driving time, and mileage, while drivers ages 16–19 reported the least.
  • Male drivers reported more trips, driving time, and miles than female drivers.
  • Drivers in the South reported the highest daily driving time and mileage, while drivers in the West reported the lowest.
  • Drivers with a bachelor’s degree or higher reported more trips and greater driving time and mileage than other education groups.
  • Vehicle age continued to shift toward newer vehicles (0-4 years old), which also accounted for the largest share of driving trips.
• Findings related to vehicle type:
  • Gas/diesel vehicles continued to account for the majority of driving trips, although hybrid and electric vehicle use increased.
  • EV trips had the longest average duration and distance compared with gas/diesel and hybrid vehicles.
  • Hybrid and EV use was highest among drivers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and among drivers in the West.
• Findings related to road trips:
  • In 2025, 30.1% of Americans reported taking at least one road trip in the previous four weeks, with an average one-way trip length of 234.8 miles.
  • Family members were the most common travel companions.