Only Romania and Bulgaria have more road traffic fatalities per head of population than Latvia, and in contrast to most other countries in the EU, Latvia's number of fatalities has actually increased over the last two pandemic years.
Across the EU, an estimated 19 800 people were killed in road crashes last year. This was an increase of 1 000 deaths (+5%) on 2020, but still represents almost 3 000 (-13%) fewer fatalities compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019.
"EU-wide, road deaths in 2021 rose by 5% on the previous year, although comparisons with 2020 are strongly influenced by the traffic level patterns in each country during the course of the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of road fatalities fell by 17%," the European Commission said.
The overall ranking of countries’ fatality rates has not changed significantly with the safest roads being found in Sweden (18 deaths per one million inhabitants) while Romania (93/million) reported the highest rate in 2021.
The EU average was 44 road deaths per million inhabitants. Latvia had an unenviable rate of 78 deaths per million inhabitants, an increase of 6% on 2020's 73/million and 11% on 2019's 69/milion. Only Slovenia (54/million) and Finland (40/million) also registered increases over the last two years,
In 2021 Estonia's rate was 39/million and Lithuania's was 52/million.
Road deaths per million inhabitants – preliminary data for 2021
|
|
Rate per million population |
% change 2021 in relation to : |
||||
|
|
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
Av 2017-2019 |
|
EU-27 |
51 |
42 |
44 |
5% |
-13% |
-15% |
|
Belgium |
56 |
43 |
43 |
0% |
-23% |
-19% |
|
Bulgaria |
90 |
67 |
81 |
21% |
-11% |
-12% |
|
Czechia |
58 |
48 |
50 |
3% |
-14% |
-14% |
|
Denmark |
34 |
28 |
23 |
-17% |
-32% |
-26% |
|
Germany |
37 |
33 |
31 |
-6% |
-16% |
-19% |
|
Estonia |
39 |
44 |
41 |
-7% |
6% |
-1% |
|
Ireland |
29 |
29 |
27 |
-6% |
-2% |
-5% |
|
Greece |
64 |
54 |
57 |
5% |
-12% |
-14% |
|
Spain |
37 |
29 |
32 |
10% |
-14% |
-16% |
|
France |
50 |
39 |
45 |
16% |
-9% |
-11% |
|
Croatia |
73 |
58 |
72 |
23% |
-2% |
-7% |
|
Italy |
53 |
40 |
48 |
19% |
-10% |
-14% |
|
Cyprus |
59 |
54 |
49 |
-8% |
-15% |
-14% |
|
Latvia |
69 |
73 |
78 |
6% |
11% |
6% |
|
Lithuania |
67 |
63 |
52 |
-17% |
-22% |
-20% |
|
Luxembourg |
36 |
42 |
38 |
-8% |
9% |
-13% |
|
Hungary |
62 |
47 |
56 |
18% |
-10% |
-12% |
|
Malta |
32 |
21 |
17 |
-18% |
-44% |
-49% |
|
Netherlands |
34 |
30 |
28 |
-4% |
-16% |
-14% |
|
Austria |
47 |
39 |
40 |
4% |
-14% |
-13% |
|
Poland |
77 |
66 |
59 |
-10% |
-23% |
-22% |
|
Portugal |
67 |
52 |
50 |
-3% |
-24% |
-22% |
|
Romania |
96 |
85 |
93 |
8% |
-4% |
-6% |
|
Slovenia |
49 |
38 |
54 |
43% |
12% |
15% |
|
Slovakia |
50 |
45 |
47 |
5% |
-4% |
-4% |
|
Finland |
38 |
40 |
40 |
0% |
6% |
-3% |
|
Sweden |
22 |
20 |
18 |
-6% |
-13% |
-28% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Switzerland |
22 |
26 |
23 |
-12% |
7% |
-8% |
|
Norway |
20 |
17 |
16 |
-5% |
-19% |
-18% |
|
Iceland |
17 |
22 |
24 |
13% |
50% |
-33% |
