In 2018 there were 77 road traffic accident fatalities per million inhabitants in Latvia and 2,480 injuries. In 2019 both measures showed improvement with 69 fatalities per million and 2,375 injuries.
Nevertheless, Latvia remains towards the higher end of the European RTA scale. For comparison purposes, Estonia had 39 RTA fatalities per million of population and 1,308 injuries in 2019. Ireland had 29 deaths per million in both 2018 and 2019.
Parts of Poland, Romania and Portugal appear to be particular RTA blackspots.
At a regional level, the highest incidence rates were recorded in Prov. Luxembourg in Belgium (171 road fatalities per million inhabitants), Região Autónoma da Madeira (165) and Alentejo (156) in Portugal. On the other hand, the lowest incidence rates were recorded in Wien in Austria (6), Stockholm in Sweden (9) and Berlin in Germany (11).
To address the issue of road safety, the EU has adopted Vision Zero, which aims to reduce the number of deaths on the EU’s roads to almost zero by 2050. The strategy has set the initial goal of cutting in half the number of fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.
Between 2009 and 2019, the incidence rate for road fatalities in the EU fell by almost one third (-32%). This downward development was repeated in more than 9 out of every 10 regions for which data are available. The most rapid declines were recorded in Ciudad de Melilla in Spain (-100%), while two regions in Greece (Sterea Ellada and Anatoliki Makedonia, Thraki), Wien in Austria, Västsverige in Sweden, and Luxembourg also recorded falls of more than 60%. By contrast, there were 19 regions across the EU where the incidence rate for road fatalities increased during the period under consideration.
You can explore the full regional data in the interactive map below.
