CENTREVILLE, Va. & IRVINE, Calif. -

There are over 47 million vehicles in the United States that have at least one unrepaired safety recall. That’s according to a recent analysis from Carfax, who pointed out that these 47 million vehicles are being driven, bought and sold, or sitting on a lot somewhere in our country, either because there’s not a fix available or because they're waiting on one or whoever owns the vehicle simply hasn’t taken the time to take it in.

To put that number in perspective, the current U.S. population is just short of 323 million (and has netted roughly 20 new Americans in the time it took to write this article) according to the United States Census Bureau.

Carfax says that 47 million number is more than a 1 million net increase in unrepaired recalled vehicles compared to last year. And every state in the union has at least 100,000 of them within its borders.

"Our data shows there's still much hard work to be done in addressing recalls," Carfax communications director Larry Gamache said in a news release. "Many people still are unnecessarily risking their lives by not staying informed or taking action when their vehicle is under a recall. It's one of the many reasons family-oriented vehicles, including one in four minivans, are the most-highly impacted. Carfax continues to work closely with the auto manufacturers so we can alert people in the U.S. and Canada that their vehicles have a potentially dangerous defect that needs to be fixed."

In a recent interview with Auto Remarketing about a separate recall-related matter, Karl Brauer, Kelley Blue Book’s senior director of automotive industry insights, discussed the changing environment of automotive recalls — which historically have carried a “fairly low priority.”

“Consumers, by the way, are just as much of a problem as the government or the dealers, because they have a horrible record of taking the vehicles in when they’ve gotten their notice,” Brauer said. “I don’t know what it is today, but in the past if you got anything over 50 percent of all vehicles involved in a recall to actually be processed and have it addressed, that was considered relatively good. And anything over 66 to 70 percent was like a home run… I just don’t think the patience now exists for that attitude.”

Citing data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Carfax points out that more than 51 million recalls were issued in 2015, more than any year prior.

"Millions more vehicles will likely be recalled this year, adding to the ones already with outstanding airbag recalls, ignition switch recalls, electrical system recalls and more,” Gamache said. “Resources like myCarfax that continuously monitor your car and send alerts to your mobile device are helping people everywhere find and fix more recalls.”