In an apparatus for controlling a vehicle that includes seats each having a seat belt, a seat-belt detector configured to detect a wearing state of each of the seat belt, and a notifying unit that notifies various items of information, a controller determines whether to notify prompt information that prompts wearing of at least one of the seat belts in accordance with a wearing-obligatory number representing the number of one or more occupants who ride on the vehicle and have an obligation to wear the corresponding one or more seat belts and a seat-belt fastened seat number representing the number of one or more seats whose seat belts are fastened.