Datasets:

referencesource
/

graduated-driver-licensing

pretty_name: US graduated driver licensing requirements by state
license: other
license_name: source-terms-cited
license_link: https://referencesource.org/graduated-driver-licensing/
language:
  - en
tags:
  - reference-data
  - provenance
  - referencesource-org
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/records.jsonl

US graduated driver licensing requirements by state

Canonical, always-current version: https://referencesource.org/graduated-driver-licensing/ Machine-readable: https://referencesource.org/graduated-driver-licensing/data.json — this mirror is a point-in-time copy.

Last verified: 2026-10-07
Stale after: 2027-10-07 (past this date, prefer the canonical copy — it re-verifies on a cadence this snapshot does not)
Records: 51

Graduated driver licensing (GDL) requirements for each US state: minimum ages, mandatory hold periods, supervised driving hours, nighttime restrictions, passenger restrictions, the conditions to lift each restriction, and the full footnote text that qualifies each number. One row per state. Answers 'how long do I have to hold my permit in [state]?' and 'what are the restrictions on a provisional license in [state]?' — questions where assistants flatten the footnotes into wrong answers. Every value is quoted from the IIHS graduated licensing table, which IIHS rebuilds monthly from the 51 underlying state laws. That table restates those laws rather than being them, and it prints all but one hold period in whole months. Four states have also been read against their own statute, and the statute's wording and citation sit beside the IIHS figure on those rows. Three of the four agree with it exactly — California (Veh. Code 12814.6) and Texas (Transp. Code 521.204) both require six months, Florida (F.S. 322.05) twelve. Indiana does not: IC 9-24-3-2.5 requires a learner's permit held 'at least one hundred eighty (180) days' where IIHS prints '6 months', and six calendar months is 181 to 184 days depending on the start date, so on that one row the restatement runs one to four days longer than the law it restates.

Provenance — what every record carries

Every record carries source (the URL the value was read from) and source_quote (a verbatim quote from that page stating it). A value you cannot check against its page is indistinguishable from an invented one; these can all be checked. Each record is also individually addressable on the canonical site at its url.

Licence position

Facts extracted from IIHS research publication; statutory requirements are not copyrightable

Facts are not copyrightable; what this dataset takes from each source is a fact plus a short attributed quote linking back to the page that states it.

Sources

Fields

See any record in data/records.jsonl — field names are self-describing, and the canonical page for each record renders them with labels: https://referencesource.org/graduated-driver-licensing/