Road traffic accidents claimed the lives of 19,934 people in the EU in 2024, a 2.2 per cent decrease compared with 2023 (20,384 fatalities) – the second year in a row with a decline in the number of fatalities.
The figures, released by the EU statistics agency Eurostat, show that there were on average 44 road fatalities per million inhabitants in the EU. The lowest rates of road fatalities were registered in Sweden (20 fatalities per million inhabitants), followed by Malta (21) and Denmark (24). By contrast, the highest rates were recorded in Romania (78), Bulgaria (74) and Greece (64).
The number of persons killed in road traffic accidents has fallen considerably over the last 10 years – by 17.4% between 2014 and 2024. The trend over this period has been downward with a few small increases: in 2015 (+0.9% compared with the previous year); and in 2021 (+5.8%) and 2022 (+3.7%), following the 2020 low number of fatalities driven by COVID-19 restrictions.
The information comes from data on road safety published by Eurostat. This article presents a handful of findings from a more detailed Statistics Explained article on road safety statistics in the EU.
Road accident fatalities in 2024 – Eurostat (number per million inhabitants)
Regarding road traffic accidents, the 10 EU regions with the largest number of accidents in 2024 were in Germany, Italy and Spain. Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany was the only NUTS 1 region recording more than 60 000 accidents (62 741). Bayern in Germany had the second-highest number of road traffic accidents (49 374), followed by Nord-Ovest in Italy (48 815).
Thematic section on transport statistics – Eurostat
