A car turned upside-down following a car crash, paramedics and firefighters are on the scene.

In 2022, road traffic accidents claimed the lives of 20 653 people in the EU, marking a 4% increase compared with 2021 (19 917 fatalities). The number of fatalities has been increasing for 2 consecutive years after the unprecedented drop in 2020 (18 833), which was attributed to COVID-19 restrictions affecting passenger transport.

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

Road accident fatalities in the EU, 2012-2011, number. Column chart. See link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: tran_sf_roadus 

Road fatality rates: lowest in Sweden, highest in Romania

In 2022, there were on average 46 road traffic fatalities per million inhabitants in the EU. Taking into consideration the population of each EU country, the lowest rates of road fatalities in 2022 were registered in Sweden (22 road fatalities per million inhabitants), Denmark (26) and Ireland (31).

Source datasets: tran_sf_roadus and demo_pjan

In contrast, the highest rates were recorded in Romania (86 road fatalities per million inhabitants), followed by Bulgaria (78) and Croatia (71).

For more information

Methodological notes

The data comes from the CARE database (the Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury). 

 
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