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Mobility and Transport
  • News article
  • 21 February 2023
  • Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
  • 4 min read

Road safety in the EU: fatalities below pre-pandemic levels but progress remains too slow

Today the European Commission is publishing preliminary figures on road fatalities for 2022. Around 20,600 people were killed in road crashes last year, a 3% increase on 2021 as traffic levels recovered after the pandemic. This represents however 2,000 fewer fatalities (-10%) compared with the pre-pandemic year 2019. The EU and UN target is to halve the number of road deaths by 2030.  

Contrasting trends across Member States

EU-wide, road deaths in 2022 rose by 3% on the previous year, not least as traffic levels recovered levels following the pandemic. Importantly, many of the gains achieved during the COVID-19 period (including a fall of 17% between 2019 and 2020) have not been lost. Compared with 2019, the number of deaths in 2022 fell by 10%. 

However, progress has been very uneven between Member States. The largest decreases, of more than 30%, were reported in Lithuania and Poland, with Denmark also recording a 23% fall. By contrast, over the last three years, the number of road deaths in countries such as Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden has remained rather stable or has risen. (It is important to note that this is based on preliminary and often partial data.)

The overall ranking of countries’ fatality rates has not changed significantly since prior to the pandemic with the safest roads in Sweden (21 deaths per one million inhabitants) and Denmark (26/million) while Romania (86/million) and Bulgaria (78/million) reported the highest rates in 2022. The EU average was 46 road deaths per million inhabitants.

Most affected groups

Based on available data for 2021 (detailed 2022 data is not yet available) across the EU, 52% of road traffic fatalities occurred on rural roads, versus 39% in urban areas and 9% on motorways. Men accounted for three out of four road deaths (78%). Car occupants (drivers and passengers) accounted for 45% of all road deaths while pedestrians represented 18%, users of powered two-wheelers (motorbikes and mopeds) 19% and cyclists 9% of total fatalities.  

Within urban areas, the pattern is however very different with vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and users of powered two-wheelers) representing just under 70% of total fatalities. Urban road user fatalities occur overwhelmingly in crashes involving cars and trucks and thus highlight the need to improve the protection of vulnerable road users. 

While the increased share of cycling in the mobility mix in many Member States is extremely welcome, a serious cause for concern is the trend in the number of cyclists killed on EU roads.  This is the only road user group not to see a significant drop in fatalities over the last decade, which is notably due to a persistent lack of well-equipped infrastructure. In 2022, for example, preliminary figures from France show a 30% increase in cycling fatalities compared with 2019.   

Background

In 2018, the EU has set itself a 50% reduction target for road deaths – and, for the first time, also serious injuries – by 2030. This was set out in the Commission's Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety and EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030 which also lay out road safety plans aiming to reach zero road deaths by 2050 (‘Vision Zero’).

Road safety has also been a core element of recent EU mobility policy initiatives including the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the Commission proposal for a revision of the TEN-T regulation and the Urban Mobility Framework.

The EU is at the forefront of the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, proclaimed by the UN for 2021–2030 in August 2020.

In the coming weeks, the Commission will present a package of proposals tackling road safety from a range of angles to make European roads safer still.

For more information

Road safety statistics 2022 in more detail

 

Road deaths per million inhabitants – preliminary data for 2022

 

Rate per million population

% change 2022 in relation to:

 

2019

2020

2021

2022

2021

2019

Average 2017-19

EU-27

51

42

45

46

3%

-10%

-11%

Belgium

56

43

45

52

16%

-7%

-3%

Bulgaria

90

67

81

78

-5%

-15%

-17%

Czechia

58

48

50

50

-1%

-15%

-15%

Denmark

34

28

22

26

18%

-23%

-15%

Germany

37

33

31

34

9%

-8%

-12%

Estonia

39

44

41

38

-9%

-4%

-10%

Ireland

29

30

27

31

14%

11%

9%

Greece

64

54

57

58

1%

-11%

-13%

Spain

37

29

32

36

12%

-2%

-5%

France

50

39

45

49

11%

0%

-2%

Croatia

73

58

72

71

-6%

-7%

-13%

Italy

53

40

49

53

9%

-2%

-5%

Cyprus

59

54

50

42

-16%

-27%

-26%

Latvia

69

73

78

60

-24%

-15%

-19%

Lithuania

67

63

53

43

-19%

-35%

-35%

Luxembourg

36

42

38

40

8%

18%

-6%

Hungary

62

47

56

56

-1%

-10%

-13%

Malta

32

21

17

50

189%

63%

47%

Netherlands

34

30

29

35

20%

4%

7%

Austria

47

39

41

41

2%

-11%

-11%

Poland

77

66

59

51

-14%

-34%

-33%

Portugal

67

52

54

63

16%

-5%

-2%

Romania

96

85

92

86

-8%

-12%

-14%

Slovenia

49

38

54

40

-25%

-17%

-14%

Slovakia

50

45

45

46

0%

-8%

-8%

Finland

38

40

41

34

-16%

-10%

-18%

Sweden

22

20

20

21

5%

0%

-17%

Switzerland

22

26

23

31

35%

44%

25%

Norway

20

17

15

23

55%

15%

16%

Iceland

17

22

24

24

0%

50%

-33%

The 2022 figures are based on preliminary data for most countries and are subject to changes when the final data are released in autumn 2023. Estimates for 2022 cover the whole year and all roads and refer to deaths within 30 days but for the following countries they are based on partial data: Germany and Greece (each 11 months), Belgium and Hungary (each 9 months), Spain (rural roads), Netherlands (partial data; also, police-registered fatalities are under-reported by around 10-15%), Portugal (fatalities within 24 hours), Switzerland (6 months). No data for Liechtenstein for 2022.  

Data for 2022 are compared with three time-periods: 2021 (the previous year), 2019 (the baseline year for the target of 50% fewer deaths by 2030) and the average of 2017-19 (to take account of fluctuations in small countries). The percentage changes in the table are based on the absolute number of fatalities, not the rate per million population. 

 

2022 Road safety statistics

2022 Road safety statistics

See also

28/03/2022: Road safety in the EU: fatalities in 2021 remain well below pre-pandemic level

20/04/2021: Road safety: 4 000 fewer people lost their lives on EU roads in 2020 as death rate falls to all time low

Details

Publication date
21 February 2023
Author
Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport