This list of countries by traffic-related death rate shows the annual number of road fatalities per capita per year, per number of motor vehicles, and per vehicle-km in some countries in the year the data was collected.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic injuries caused an estimated 1.35 million deaths worldwide in 2016. [2] That is, one person is killed every 26 seconds on average.
Only 28 countries, representing 449 million people (seven percent of the world's population), have laws that address the five risk factors of speed, drunk driving, helmets, seat-belts and child restraints.[ citation needed ] Over a third of road traffic deaths in low- and middle-income countries are among pedestrians and cyclists. However, less than 35 percent of low- and middle-income countries have policies in place to protect these road users. [3] The average rate was 17.4 per 100,000 people. Low-income countries now have the highest annual road traffic fatality rates, at 24.1 per 100,000, while the rate in high-income countries is lowest, at 9.2 per 100,000. [3]
Seventy-four percent of road traffic deaths occur in middle-income countries, which account for only 53 percent of the world's registered vehicles. In low-income countries it is even worse. Only one percent of the world's registered cars produce 16 percent of world's road traffic deaths. This indicates that these countries bear a disproportionately high burden of road traffic deaths relative to their level of motorization. [3]
There are large disparities in road traffic death rates between regions. The risk of dying as a result of a road traffic injury is highest in the African Region (26.6 per 100 000 population), and lowest in the European Region (9.3 per 100 000). [3]
Adults aged between 15 and 44 years account for 59 percent of global road traffic deaths. 77 percent of road deaths are males. [4]
The total fatalities figures comes from the WHO report (table A2, column point estimate, pp. 264–271) and are often an adjusted number of road traffic fatalities in order to reflect the different reporting and counting methods among the many countries (e.g., "a death after how many days since accident event is still counted as a road fatality?" (by international standard adjusted to a 30-day period), or "to compensate for under-reporting in some countries". [3] [5] : 62–74
The table shows that the highest death tolls tend to be in African countries, and the lowest in European countries. The table first lists WHO geographic regions before alphabetically sorted countries.
Country/region | Continent | per 100,000 inhabitants [6] [1] | per 1 billion vehicle-km [7] | Total [lower-alpha 1] [6] [1] | Date [lower-alpha 2] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Global | 16.7 | 1,282,150 | 2019 | ||
Africa | 27.2 | 297,087 | 2019 | ||
Eastern Mediterranean | 17.8 | 126,958 | 2019 | ||
Western Pacific | 16.4 | 317,393 | 2019 | ||
Southeast Asia | 15.8 | 317,069 | 2019 | ||
Americas | 15.3 | 154,780 | 2019 | ||
Europe | 7.4 | 68,863 | 2019 | ||
Afghanistan | Asia | 15.9 | 6,033 | 2019 | |
Albania | Europe | 11.7 | 337 | 2019 | |
Algeria | Africa | 20.9 | 8,996 | 2019 | |
Andorra | Europe | 7.6 | 6 | 2019 | |
Angola | Africa | 26.1 | 8,317 | 2019 | |
Antigua and Barbuda | North America | 6.7 | 6 | 2013 | |
Argentina | South America | 8.2 | 3,828 | 2022 | |
Armenia | Asia | 20.0 | 590 | 2016 | |
Australia | Oceania | 4.1 | 5.2 | 1,245 | 2018 [8] |
Austria | Europe | 4.9 | 5.1 | 436 | 2019 |
Azerbaijan | Asia | 6.7 | 676 | 2019 | |
Bahamas | North America | 7.7 | 30 | 2019 | |
Bahrain | Asia | 5.2 | 85 | 2019 | |
Bangladesh | Asia | 15.3 | 25,023 | 2019 | |
Barbados | North America | 8.2 | 23 | 2019 | |
Belarus | Europe | 7.6 | 722 | 2019 | |
Belgium | Europe | 5.4 | 7.3 | 657 | 2019 [9] |
Belize | North America | 22.6 | 88 | 2019 | |
Benin | Africa | 26.8 | 3,162 | 2019 | |
Bhutan | Asia | 16.2 | 123 | 2019 | |
Bolivia | South America | 21.1 | 2,430 | 2019 | |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | Europe | 13.5 | 446 | 2019 | |
Botswana | Africa | 26.4 | 608 | 2019 | |
Brazil | South America | 16.0 | 33,871 | 2019 | |
Brunei | Asia | 7.5 | 32 | 2019 | |
Bulgaria | Europe | 9.0 | 601 | 2019 [9] | |
Burkina Faso | Africa | 31.0 | 6,303 | 2019 | |
Burundi | Africa | 35.5 | 4,089 | 2019 | |
Cambodia | Asia | 16.9 | 3,223 | 2019 | |
Cameroon | Africa | 30.2 | 7,810 | 2019 | |
Canada | North America | 5.3 | 5.1 | 1,998 | 2019 |
Cape Verde | Africa | 26.8 | 147 | 2019 | |
Central African Republic | Africa | 37.7 | 1,790 | 2019 | |
Chad | Africa | 32.4 | 5,171 | 2019 | |
Chile | South America | 14.9 | 2,826 | 2019 | |
China | Asia | 17.4 | 250,272 | 2019 | |
Colombia | South America | 15.4 | 7,765 | 2019 | |
Comoros | Africa | 26.6 | 226 | 2019 | |
Congo | Africa | 29.7 | 1,598 | 2019 | |
Cook Islands | Oceania | 24.2 | 5 | 2013 | |
Costa Rica | North America | 14.9 | 746 | 2019 | |
Croatia | Europe | 7.3 | 340 | 2019 [9] | |
Cuba | North America | 8.9 | 1,007 | 2019 | |
Cyprus | Europe | 5.9 | 60 | 2019 [9] | |
Czech Republic | Europe | 4.2 | 9.8 [10] | 454 | 2022 [11] |
Democratic Republic of the Congo | Africa | 34.9 | 30,256 | 2019 | |
Denmark | Europe | 3.4 | 3.9 | 227 | 2019 [9] |
Djibouti | Africa | 13.5 | 229 | 2019 | |
Dominica | North America | 15.3 | 11 | 2013 | |
Dominican Republic | North America | 64.6 | 6,937 | 2019 | |
Ecuador | South America | 20.1 | 3,490 | 2019 | |
Egypt | Africa | 10.1 | 10,141 | 2019 | |
El Salvador | North America | 20.9 | 1,347 | 2019 | |
Equatorial Guinea | Africa | 27.2 | 368 | 2019 | |
Eritrea | Africa | 37.9 | 1,326 | 2019 | |
Estonia | Europe | 4.5 | 59 | 2019 | |
Ethiopia | Africa | 28.2 | 31,564 | 2019 | |
Fiji | Oceania | 13.5 | 120 | 2019 | |
Finland | Europe | 3.8 | 5.1 | 260 | 2019 [9] |
France | Europe | 5 | 5.8 | 3,585 | 2019 [9] |
Gabon | Africa | 23.9 | 518 | 2019 | |
Gambia | Africa | 29.6 | 695 | 2019 | |
Georgia | Europe | 11.5 | 430 | 2022 | |
Germany | Europe | 3.7 | 4.2 | 3,327 | 2019 [9] |
Ghana | Africa | 25.7 | 7,808 | 2019 | |
Greece | Europe | 6.5 | 699 | 2019 [9] | |
Grenada | North America | 8.0 | 9 | 2019 | |
Guatemala | North America | 22.9 | 4,026 | 2019 | |
Guinea | Africa | 29.7 | 3,788 | 2019 | |
Guinea-Bissau | Africa | 32.2 | 619 | 2019 | |
Guyana | South America | 22.3 | 175 | 2019 | |
Honduras | North America | 16.1 | 1,572 | 2019 | |
Hong Kong | Asia | 1.3 | 7.3 | 97 | 2020 [12] |
Hungary | Europe | 6.2 | 756 | 2019 [9] | |
Iceland | Europe | 3.8 | 4.9 | 8 [13] | 2016– 2021 [13] [14] |
India | Asia | 15.6 | 212,596 | 2019 | |
Indonesia | Asia | 11.3 | 30,668 | 2019 | |
Iran | Asia | 21.5 | 17,803 | 2019 | |
Iraq | Asia | 27.3 | 10,726 | 2019 | |
Ireland | Europe | 2.9 | 3.8 | 194 | 2019 [9] |
Israel | Asia | 3.9 | 5.9 | 333 | 2019 |
Italy | Europe | 5.2 | 3,333 | 2019 [9] | |
Ivory Coast | Africa | 24.1 | 6,202 | 2019 | |
Jamaica | North America | 15.1 | 444 | 2019 | |
Japan | Asia | 2.5 | 4.4 | 3,205 | 2021 [15] |
Jordan | Asia | 17.1 | 1,717 | 2019 | |
Kazakhstan | Asia | 12.7 | 2,352 | 2019 | |
Kenya | Africa | 28.3 | 14,883 | 2019 | |
Kiribati | Oceania | 1.9 | 2 | 2019 | |
Kuwait | Asia | 15.4 | 649 | 2019 | |
Kyrgyzstan | Asia | 12.7 | 812 | 2019 | |
Laos | Asia | 17.9 | 1,281 | 2019 | |
Latvia | Europe | 6.9 | 205 | 2019 [9] | |
Lebanon | Asia | 16.4 | 1,127 | 2019 | |
Lesotho | Africa | 31.9 | 678 | 2019 | |
Liberia | Africa | 38.9 | 1920 | 2019 | |
Libya | Africa | 21.3 | 1,444 | 2019 | |
Lithuania | Europe | 6.6 | 234 | 2019 [9] | |
Luxembourg | Europe | 4.1 | 25 | 2019 | |
Madagascar | Africa | 29.2 | 7,880 | 2019 | |
Malawi | Africa | 33.4 | 6,221 | 2019 | |
Malaysia | Asia | 22.5 | 16.2 [nb 2] | 7,181 | 2019 |
Maldives | Asia | 1.6 | 9 | 2019 | |
Mali | Africa | 22.7 | 4,465 | 2019 | |
Malta | Europe | 4.1 | 18 | 2019 | |
Marshall Islands | Oceania | 5.7 | 3 | 2013 | |
Mauritania | Africa | 25.6 | 1,158 | 2019 | |
Mauritius | Africa | 12.2 | 155 | 2019 | |
Mexico | North America | 12.8 | 27.5 | 16,303 | 2019 |
Micronesia | Oceania | 0.2 | 0 | 2019 | |
Moldova | Europe | 12.5 | 437 | 2016 | |
Monaco | Europe | 0 | 0 | 2013 | |
Mongolia | Asia | 21.0 | 679 | 2019 | |
Montenegro | Europe | 7.6 | 48 | 2019 | |
Morocco | Africa | 17.0 | 6,185 | 2019 | |
Mozambique | Africa | 30.0 | 9,117 | 2019 | |
Myanmar | Asia | 20.4 | 11,004 | 2019 | |
Namibia | Africa | 34.8 | 868 | 2019 | |
Nepal | Asia | 16.3 | 4,654 | 2019 | |
Netherlands | Europe | 3.8 | 4.7 | 648 | 2019 [9] |
New Zealand | Oceania | 7.8 | 7.2 | 364 | 2016 |
Nicaragua | North America | 16.9 | 1,109 | 2019 | |
Niger | Africa | 25.5 | 5,946 | 2019 | |
Nigeria | Africa | 20.7 | 41,693 | 2019 | |
North Korea | Asia | 24.2 | 6,210 | 2019 | |
North Macedonia | Europe | 5.1 | 107 | 2019 | |
Norway | Europe | 2 | 3.0 | 110 | 2019 [9] |
Oman | Asia | 10.6 | 527 | 2019 | |
Pakistan | Asia | 13.0 | 28,170 | 2019 | |
Palau | Oceania | 4.8 | 1 | 2013 | |
Panama | North America | 13.9 | 591 | 2019 | |
Papua New Guinea | Oceania | 12.6 | 1,105 | 2019 | |
Paraguay | South America | 22.0 | 1,552 | 2019 | |
Peru | South America | 13.6 | 4,414 | 2019 | |
Philippines | Asia | 12.0 | 13,017 | 2019 | |
Poland | Europe | 7.7 | 3,698 | 2019 [9] | |
Portugal | Europe | 6.3 | 768 | 2019 [9] | |
Qatar | Asia | 7.3 | 206 | 2021 | |
Romania | Europe | 10 | 1,881 | 2019 [9] | |
Russia | Europe | 12.0 | 17,507 | 2019 | |
Rwanda | Africa | 29.4 | 3,718 | 2019 | |
Saint Lucia | North America | 29.8 | 55 | 2019 | |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | North America | 7.4 | 8 | 2019 | |
Samoa | Oceania | 13.0 | 26 | 2019 | |
San Marino | Europe | 3.2 | 1 | 2013 | |
São Tomé and Príncipe | Africa | 27.9 | 60 | 2019 | |
Saudi Arabia | Asia | 35.9 | 12,317 | 2019 | |
Senegal | Africa | 23.4 | 3,832 | 2019 | |
Serbia | Europe | 7.6 | 649 | 2019 [9] | |
Seychelles | Africa | 11.3 | 11 | 2019 | |
Sierra Leone | Africa | 33.0 | 2,581 | 2019 | |
Singapore | Asia | 2.1 | 121 | 2019 | |
Slovakia | Europe | 4.5 | 330 | 2019 [9] | |
Slovenia | Europe | 4.9 | 7.0 | 134 | 2019 [9] |
Solomon Islands | Oceania | 16.5 | 111 | 2019 | |
Somalia | Africa | 27.4 | 4,231 | 2019 | |
South Africa | Africa | 22.2 | 13014 | 2019 | |
South Korea | Asia | 5.3 | 9.1 [10] | 2,735 | 2022 [16] |
South Sudan | Africa | 36.7 | 4,063 | 2019 | |
Spain | Europe | 3.7 | 1,922 | 2019 [9] | |
Sri Lanka | Asia | 19.7 | 4,200 | 2019 | |
Sudan | Africa | 26.8 | 11,459 | 2019 | |
Suriname | South America | 15.3 | 89 | 2013 | |
Eswatini | Africa | 24.2 | 303 | 2013 | |
Sweden | Europe | 2.2 | 3.3 | 223 | 2019 [9] |
Switzerland | Europe | 2.2 | 3.2 | 223 | 2019 [9] |
Syria | Asia | 14.9 | 2,550 | 2019 | |
Taiwan | Asia | 12.1 | 2,865 | 2019 [lower-alpha 3] | |
Tajikistan | Asia | 15.7 | 1,461 | 2019 | |
Tanzania | Africa | 31.1 | 18,054 | 2019 | |
Thailand | Asia | 32.2 | 22,428 | 2019 | |
Timor-Leste | Asia | 11.9 | 154 | 2019 | |
Togo | Africa | 28.7 | 2,316 | 2019 | |
Tonga | Oceania | 33.0 | 34 | 2019 | |
Trinidad and Tobago | North America | 9.3 | 130 | 2019 | |
Tunisia | Africa | 16.5 | 1,928 | 2019 | |
Turkey | Asia | 6.7 | 5,573 | 2019 | |
Turkmenistan | Asia | 13.5 | 800 | 2019 | |
Uganda | Africa | 29.4 | 13,012 | 2019 | |
Ukraine | Europe | 10.2 | 4,487 | 2019 | |
United Arab Emirates | Asia | 8.9 | 870 | 2019 | |
United Kingdom | Europe | 2.9 | 3.8 [nb 2] | 2,026 | 2019 [9] |
United States | North America | 12.9 | 8.3 [10] | 45,404 | 2021 |
Uruguay | South America | 11.5 | 394 | 2022 | |
Uzbekistan | Asia | 11.7 | 3,853 | 2019 | |
Vanuatu | Oceania | 14.9 | 45 | 2019 | |
Venezuela | South America | 39.0 | 11,127 | 2019 | |
Vietnam | Asia | 30.6 | 29,475 | 2019 | |
Yemen | Asia | 29.4 | 8,561 | 2019 | |
Zambia | Africa | 20.5 | 3,654 | 2019 | |
Zimbabwe | Africa | 41.2 | 6,037 | 2019 |
Nations:
General:
Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed, expressed as kilometres per hour (km/h) or miles per hour (mph) or both. Speed limits are commonly set by the legislative bodies of national or provincial governments and enforced by national or regional police and judicial authorities. Speed limits may also be variable, or in some places nonexistent, such as on most of the Autobahnen in Germany.
Automotive safety is the study and practice of automotive design, construction, equipment and regulation to minimize the occurrence and consequences of traffic collisions involving motor vehicles. Road traffic safety more broadly includes roadway design.
Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, and passengers of on-road public transport.
Risk compensation is a theory which suggests that people typically adjust their behavior in response to perceived levels of risk, becoming more careful where they sense greater risk and less careful if they feel more protected. Although usually small in comparison to the fundamental benefits of safety interventions, it may result in a lower net benefit than expected or even higher risks.
Seat belt legislation requires the fitting of seat belts to motor vehicles and the wearing of seat belts by motor vehicle occupants to be mandatory. Laws requiring the fitting of seat belts to cars have in some cases been followed by laws mandating their use, with the effect that thousands of deaths on the road have been prevented. Different laws apply in different countries to the wearing of seat belts.
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was enacted in the United States in 1966 to empower the federal government to set and administer new safety standards for motor vehicles and road traffic safety. The Act was the first mandatory federal safety standards for motor vehicles. The Act created the National Highway Safety Bureau. The Act was one of a number of initiatives by the government in response to increasing number of cars and associated fatalities and injuries on the road following a period when the number of people killed on the road had increased 6-fold and the number of vehicles was up 11-fold since 1925. The reduction of the rate of death attributable to motor-vehicle crashes in the United States represents the successful public health response to a great technologic advance of the 20th century—the motorization of the United States.
This table shows the motor vehicle fatality rate in the United States by year from 1899 through 2021. It excludes indirect car-related fatalities.
Smeed's Law is an empirical rule suggested to relate traffic fatalities to traffic congestion as measured by the proxy of motor vehicle registrations and country population. The law proposes that increasing traffic volume leads to an increase in fatalities per capita, but a decrease in fatalities per vehicle.
This is a list of numbers of motorcycle deaths in U.S. by year from 1994 to 2014. United States motorcycle fatalities increased every year for 11 years after reaching a historic low of 2,116 fatalities in 1997, then increased to over 5,000 around 2008 and then plateaued in the 4 to 5 thousands range in the 2010s. In nine years motorcycle deaths more than doubled from the late 1990s to 2008. Despite providing less than 1% of miles driven, they made up 15% of traffic deaths in 2012.
Transportation safety in the United States encompasses safety of transportation in the United States, including automobile crashes, airplane crashes, rail crashes, and other mass transit incidents, although the most fatalities are generated by road incidents annually killing 32,479 people in 2011 to over 42,000 people in 2022. The number of deaths per passenger-mile on commercial airlines in the United States between 2000 and 2010 was about 0.2 deaths per 10 billion passenger-miles. For driving, the rate was 150 per 10 billion vehicle-miles: 750 times higher per mile than for flying in a commercial airplane.
A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Traffic collisions often result in injury, disability, death, and property damage as well as financial costs to both society and the individuals involved. Road transport is the most dangerous situation people deal with on a daily basis, but casualty figures from such incidents attract less media attention than other, less frequent types of tragedy. The commonly used term car accident is increasingly falling out of favor with many government departments and organizations, with the Associated Press style guide recommending caution before using the term. Some collisions are intentional vehicle-ramming attacks, staged crashes, vehicular homicide or vehicular suicide.
Worker road safety refers to the economic, societal, and legal ramifications of protecting workers from automobile-related injury, disability, and death. Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of occupational fatalities throughout the world, especially in developing countries. In addition to the suffering of the workers and their families, businesses and society also bear direct and indirect costs. These include increased insurance premiums, the threat of litigation, loss of an employee, and destruction of property.
An occupational fatality is a death that occurs while a person is at work or performing work related tasks. Occupational fatalities are also commonly called "occupational deaths" or "work-related deaths/fatalities" and can occur in any industry or occupation.
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that Cameroon is fulfilling 61.0% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income. When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Cameroon achieves 81.7% of what is expected based on its current income. In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 70.5% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income. Cameroon falls into the "very bad" category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling only 30.9% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available.
Worldwide, it was estimated that 1.25 million people were killed and many millions more were injured in motor vehicle collisions in 2013. This makes motor vehicle collisions the leading cause of death among young adults of 15–29 years of age and the ninth most frequent cause of death for all ages worldwide. In the United States, 40,100 people died and 2.8 million were injured in crashes in 2017, and around 2,000 children under 16 years old die every year.
Vehicular suicide is the use of a motor vehicle to intentionally cause one's own death.
Traffic collisions in India are a major source of deaths, injuries and property damage every year. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2021 report states that there were 155,622 fatalities, highest since 2014, out of which 69,240 deaths were due to two-wheelers. A study by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, U.S. shows that the use of seat belts significantly reduces the risks and injuries from road accidents, and yet there is no enforcement on use of seat belts in cars. A study by IIT Delhi points out that the national highways constitute only 2% of the length of roads in India, but they account for 30.3% of total road accidents and 36% of deaths.
People who are driving as part of their work duties are an important road user category. First, workers themselves are at risk of road traffic injury. Contributing factors include fatigue and long work hours, delivery pressures, distractions from mobile phones and other devices, lack of training to operate the assigned vehicle, vehicle defects, use of prescription and non-prescription medications, medical conditions, and poor journey planning. Death, disability, or injury of a family wage earner due to road traffic injury, in addition to causing emotional pain and suffering, creates economic hardship for the injured worker and family members that may persist well beyond the event itself.
With 139,000 km of public roads, the Netherlands has one of the most dense road networks in the world – much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium. In 2013, 5,191 km were national roads, 7,778 km were provincial roads, and 125,230 km were municipality and other roads. Dutch roads include 3,530 km of motorways and expressways, and with a motorway density of 64 kilometres per 1,000 km2, the country also has one of the densest motorway networks in the world. In Dutch a motorway is called "autosnelweg" or simply "snelweg"; other expressways are just called "autoweg". According to a 2004 estimate, some 12,500 km of road remain as yet unpaved.
Road safety in Europe encompasses transportation safety among road users in Europe, including automobile accidents, pedestrian or cycling accidents, motor-coach accidents, and other incidents occurring within the European Union or within the European region of the World Health Organization. Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured.
Tables A2 & A11, data from 2016
Tables A2 & A10, data from 2013
Tables A2 & A10, data from 2010
data from 2016