Rail transport fatalities: continued decrease in 2021

Between 2010 and 2021, the number of people killed in railway accidents in the EU fell to 683 deaths (-562 deaths compared with 2010; -45%). Although this number has been gradually decreasing over this period, the decrease in 2020 was also influenced by the sharp drop in rail passenger transport following the COVID-19 outbreak. This decrease continued from 2020 to 2021 (-1%). 

This information comes from data on railway safety published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Source dataset: tran_sf_railvi

Eastern Europe: highest rates of people killed in railway accidents per million inhabitants

In 2021, 1.5 people died in railway accidents per one million inhabitants in the EU. 

The highest rates of people killed in railway accidents were recorded in Slovakia (5.7), Hungary (4.9), and Poland (3.9). 

Source datasets: tran_sf_railvi and demo_pjan

On the other hand, the lowest rates of people killed in railway accidents were recorded in Ireland (0.2), Spain (0.3) and Greece and the Netherlands (both 0.6). In total, nine EU Member States registered less than one fatality per million inhabitants in 2021 (Slovenia, Italy, Estonia, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Ireland).