A vehicle state judging apparatus includes a wheel speed sensor provided on a vehicle detecting a wheel speed, a shift position sensor detecting a position of a shift lever, an acceleration sensor detecting acceleration acting on the vehicle, and a judging unit judging a vehicle state from detection values of the wheel speed sensor, the shift position sensor and the acceleration sensor. The judging unit judges that a travel direction of the vehicle is switched when the judging unit detects that the shift lever is switched from a position other than forward movement to a position of the forward movement or switched from a position other than backward movement to a position of the backward movement, detects that the wheel speed is not lower than a first reference speed, and further detects that the wheel speed becomes not higher than a second reference speed before the moment of detection.