Road fatality rate higher in EU’s south-east regions

In 2023, the EU recorded 46 road fatalities per million inhabitants. Road fatalities were relatively evenly distributed among the EU regions (at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 2)): 123 out of 234 regions (52.6% of all regions) reported a rate above the EU average, 7 regions reported the exact EU average, whereas 104 had a rate below the average. 

Grim figures were recorded in 7 regions that registered at least 100 fatalities per million inhabitants. These regions were mostly clustered in the south-east corner of the EU. 

The highest regional rates of road fatalities were observed in: 

• Bulgaria – Severozapaden recorded the highest rate in the EU, with 166 road fatalities per million inhabitants; the neighbouring region of Severen tsentralen also reported a high rate (107 fatalities per million inhabitants);
• Greece – the island regions of Ionia Nisia (120 fatalities per million inhabitants) and Notio Aigaio (119 fatalities per million inhabitants);
• France – the outermost region of Guyane (117 fatalities per million inhabitants);
• Romania – Sud-Vest Oltenia (107 fatalities per million inhabitants) and Sud-Est (102 fatalities per million inhabitants).

Source datasets: tran_r_acci and tran_sf_roadus

In 2023, 26 NUTS level 2 regions recorded fewer than 25 road deaths per million inhabitants. Among them, 2 regions reported no road fatalities at all: Åland (Finland) and Ciudad de Melilla (Spain). Most of the other regions with low casualty rates were urban areas and 11 of them were capital regions.

The lowest fatality rates were recorded in: 

• Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest in Belgium (5 road fatalities per million inhabitants);
• Wien in Austria (6 fatalities per million inhabitants);
• Berlin in Germany (9 fatalities per million inhabitants).

This article is published ahead of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, marked on 17 November to honour those killed or injured on the roads and promote efforts to improve road safety.

Would you like to know more about transport statistics at the regional level? 

You can read more about transport statistics in the Eurostat regional yearbook – 2025 edition, also available as a set of Statistics Explained articles, as well as in the transport section of the interactive publication Regions in Europe and the Statistical Atlas.