In 2022, the total number of road fatalities in the EU rose to 20 889, up 3.6% compared with 2021. On average, there were 46 road fatalities per million inhabitants in 2022.
Latvia's rate was considerably higher than that at 60 road fatalities per million inhabitants.
Latvia can take some solace in the fact that quite a few regions of Europe have even worse statistics: the highest incidence rates for which data are available were recorded in Alentejo (149 road fatalities per million inhabitants) in Portugal and Notio Aigaio (131) and Ionia Nisia (127) in Greece.
In addition, Latvia's figure of 60 is markedly down on last year's equivalent figure of 72 road deaths per million inhabitants, suggesting that things may be heading in the right direction and bucking the EU-wide trend. It's not so long ago that in 2018 the rate was at 77 deaths per million in Latvia.
While Åland in Finland reported no road deaths at all last year, the next lowest incidence rates were observed in the Swedish capital region of Stockholm (7), the Austrian capital region of Wien and the German capital region of Berlin (both 9).
Taking a longer-term view, in more than 4 out of every 5 EU regions, the incidence rate of road fatalities fell between 2012 and 2022.
The most rapid decline in the incidence of road fatalities was in the remote Swedish region of Norra Mellansverige (-62.9%), while Małopolskie in Poland and Salzburg in Austria also recorded falls of more than 60.0%.
By contrast, there were 37 regions across the EU where the rate of road fatalities increased during this period. The highest increases in road fatalities with at least 50% were recorded in Cantabria in Spain, Severen tsentralen in Bulgaria, Voreio Aigaio in Greece, Região Autónoma dos Açores in Portugal and Malta (where the rate more than doubled).
