Road fatalities by region in 2021

In 2021, there were 19 917 road fatalities on EU roads, equivalent to 45 road fatalities per million inhabitants. 

The EU region with the highest rate of road fatalities at  NUTS 2 level was the French outermost region of Guadeloupe, recording 159 road fatalities per million inhabitants, followed by Severozapaden in north-west Bulgaria (133) and Guyane, another French outermost region (120). In total, there were 24 EU regions with at least 80 road fatalities per million inhabitants, indicated by the dark blue colour on the map. These regions were primarily located in Romania (six regions), outermost and island regions of France (four regions), Bulgaria and Greece (three regions each), Croatia, Poland, and Portugal (two regions each), with the remaining regions situated in Belgium and Italy (2020 data). 

Some of the highest incidence rates for road fatalities were recorded in rural regions, while urban and capital regions tended to report much lower rates of road fatalities.

  
Source datasets: tran_r_acci, tran_sf_roadse and demo_r_d2jan

Two EU regions reported no road fatalities: Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste in northern Italy (2020 data) and the relatively small, autonomous region of Ciudad de Ceuta in Spain. Apart from these two exceptions, the lowest incidence rates were observed in urban regions, such as the capital region of Belgium (Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest) with 7 road fatalities per million inhabitants, the Austrian capital region of Wien (8), the Swedish capital region of Stockholm (9), and the northern German region of Bremen (also 9). 

Would you like to know more about regional transport in the EU?

You can read more about regional data on transport in the EU in the dedicated section of the Regions in Europe - 2023 interactive edition and in the Eurostat regional yearbook - 2023 edition, also available as a set of Statistics Explained articles. The corresponding maps in the Statistical Atlas provide a full-screen interactive map.