The chest is one of the most frequently injured body regions in motor vehicle collisions. However, the relationship between the structural and material properties of the ribs has been largely unstudied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate potential correlations between the structural properties of whole ribs and the material properties of rib cortical bone. Twenty‐nine pairs of sixth ribs underwent whole rib bending tests and coupon tension tests to quantify the structural and material properties, respectively. Analogous material and structural properties were paired, and both parametric and non‐parametric measures of correlation were calculated. For each pair, the percent variance of the structural property explained by the material property was assessed by calculating R2 values. All pairs resulted in positive correlations.  A significant correlation indicated that the material property influenced the structural property. However, all pairs, including those with significant correlations, had R2 values below 0.5, indicating the material properties did not explain the majority of the variance of the structural properties. Overall, this study is the first step toward determining the relative contributions of material properties on the structural response of whole ribs.