Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
In 2023, 20,400 people lost their lives in road accidents across the European Union, a 1% decrease from the previous year, with 46 road deaths per million inhabitants. Although the longer-term trend shows a 10% decrease compared to 2019, the current rate of decline is below the EU’s intermediate target of halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030, which requires an annual reduction of 4.5%. According to figures released by the European Statistical Office in Brussels and published by the European Commission on Thursday,
Progress remains very uneven across member states, with the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Poland, Romania and Finland recording their lowest figures since modern records began. Poland reported a 35% decrease in the number of deaths between 2019 and 2023 while Ireland reported a 32% increase. The overall ranking of country fatality rates has not changed significantly: Sweden and Denmark still have the safest roads, with 22 and 26 fatalities per million inhabitants respectively, while Bulgaria and Romania – despite improvements – have the highest rates, with 82 and 81 fatalities per million inhabitants respectively in 2023.
Currently, around 400 people die every week in road accidents on European roads. The EU is working towards “Vision Zero”, the goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on the roads by 2050. While the Commission has been a strong driver of action at EU level, achieving this goal requires collaborative action at national and local level as well. Annual road fatalities almost halved between 2001 and 2010, but progress has been slowing since the early 2000s. The figures published today are the final number of road deaths for 2023, following the release of preliminary data in March 2024. The preliminary figures for the first half of 2024 indicate that the number of deaths on EU roads remained stable, compared to the same period in 2023.