How many people die on the roads in each country?
WHO's modelled estimates for 2023 give a median of 11.67 road deaths per 100,000 people across 183 countries, from 0.90 in Maldives to 53.98 in Dem. People's Republic of Korea; in the 46 countries with a usable death-register rate and a Eurostat or ITF rate for the same year from 2018 on, the register rate is the higher one in 17.
road traffic deaths per 100,000 people
Year varies by country (2010–2025) · grey: no figure
Too small or not separate on this map: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion. Each colour is one figure per country: one year, not an average, for the year shown in the ranking and when you point at a country.With "How sure" on, hatching marks countries whose latest figure has a trust score below 60 (Low or Very low).
All countries
Each source's value links to its publisher; point at it for the source and year. A value in brackets is shown but doesn't count, and pointing at it says why. Retrieved 2026-10-25, 2026-11-02.
About this data
Every source on this page (4)
Who is behind the sources
- 100% International body
Each publisher, its funding and its own description
- World Health Organization (WHO) · International bodyFunding: Assessed contributions (membership dues) from member states, plus voluntary contributions from member states and other partners. sourceIn its own words: “…WHO is the United Nations agency that connects nations, partners and people to promote health…” source, retrieved 2026-10-27
- OECD · International bodyFunding: Contributions from its member countries, set by a formula based on the size of each economy, plus voluntary contributions. sourceIn its own words: “Our core aim is to set international standards and support their implementation…” source, retrieved 2026-10-27
- Eurostat · International bodyFunding: EU budget; Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The gender-based violence survey was run with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), also EU-funded. sourceIn its own words: “Our mission is to provide high-quality statistics and data on Europe.” source, retrieved 2026-10-27
- WHO Global Health Estimates 2023, road injuryUsed for 183 countries; counts toward 183. Years 2021 to 2023. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Open the publisher's page
- WHO Mortality Database, road traffic deathsUsed for 140 countries; counts toward 130. Years 2001 to 2024. Retrieved 2026-10-25.Not counted where: too few deaths were registered that year for its rate to count (each row says how many); a rate this close to zero in a population this big reflects how deaths are coded.Open the publisher's page
- Eurostat, road traffic deaths (sdg_11_40)Used for 34 countries; counts toward 33. Years 2018 to 2024. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Not counted where: it republishes ITF.Open the publisher's pageData (API)
- OECD/ITF, annual road fatalitiesUsed for 56 countries; counts toward 26. Years 2000 to 2025. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Not counted where: it republishes Eurostat.Open the publisher's pageData (API)
Why the numbers differ (15)
- The 30-day limit. WHO says its estimates follow ICD-10 and count all deaths in a calendar year that result from a road crash, whatever the time since the crash, unlike many official road traffic records, which use a 30-day definition. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- The definition Eurostat and ITF share: a person killed is anyone dying immediately or within 30 days as a result of an injury accident, excluding suicides. Countries that do not apply the 30-day limit get a conversion coefficient. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Death certificates and road crash figures. WHO's register line counts cause-of-death codes sent by national statistics offices or health ministries. Eurostat and ITF count deaths in road crashes within 30 days. In the 46 countries with both for the same year from 2018 on, the register rate is the higher one in 17, and the median register rate is 0.96 times the Eurostat or ITF rate. (source, retrieved 2026-10-25)
- The Netherlands. CBS builds its road death count from death certificates, files from public prosecutors and Rijkswaterstaat's crash register. ITF's count equals it in 30 of 30 years, so that line shares death certificates with the WHO register line. The values still differ, and both are counted, so they are not two fully independent sources. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Eurostat says police-registered deaths in the Netherlands are under-reported, at around 84% of the national total: 566 in its CARE data against 675 published nationally in 2024. Across countries it says the data are compiled by police, ministries or statistical authorities, so only its Dutch line is typed as police records here. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Where European crash data come from. The European Commission says national data sets enter its CARE database with their national structure and definitions, and that countries have their own registration systems, not always compatible with CARE. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- The Commission's common data structure for that database is also offered as a recommendation for national police road accident data collection reports. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Under-reporting. WHO reports that across countries taking part in its road safety reports, its estimates average 1.7 to 1.8 times the deaths governments report. In a record-linkage study in Lusaka Province, Zambia, it reports police records as about 19% complete, hospital records 12% and vital statistics 14%. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Modelling. WHO's estimate is not a count. Countries with death registration at least 80% complete use those data, and for countries without eligible registers WHO uses a negative binomial regression. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO says road injury deaths in its estimates were adjusted upwards where needed to take account of surveillance data from countries, and that the time series were extrapolated to 2023 using available death registers and cause fractions from GBD 2023. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Extrapolated years. Among the 62 countries with a usable WHO register rate for 2023, the estimate for 2023 is at least 25% above the register rate in 25, including the United States of America (18.38 against 13.07). (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- One set of figures, two publishers. Eurostat and ITF counts match for 31 European countries, identically in 641 of 742 country-years, so one of the two is marked as a copy there and counts once. They differ in Netherlands (Kingdom of the) (566 against 675 in 2024), so both count there. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Which codes count. The register line uses WHO's road injury list, which is finer on 4-character ICD-10 codes than on 3-character ones. Each line's definition gives the codes. Before ICD-10, the series use ICD-9 motor vehicle traffic accidents (E810-E819) and ICD-8 motor vehicle accidents (E810-E823). (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Condensed lists. 6 countries' latest files have only one item for all transport accidents (V01-V99), which also counts rail, water and air deaths, so those lines carry half weight. (source, retrieved 2026-10-25)
- Population. Eurostat divides by the average of two 1 January populations and publishes one decimal. The WHO register line uses WHO's population file. The ITF line here uses UN population, so it can differ slightly from the rate ITF publishes. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Common mistakes (2)
- Comparing a rate per 100,000 people with a rate per billion vehicle-kilometres or per 10,000 road motor vehicles. ITF publishes all three, and each has a different base. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Reading a WHO estimate as a count. For countries without eligible death registers it comes from a regression model. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Context (6)
- WHO fact sheet on road traffic injuries. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- WHO Global status report on road safety 2023, including its methods annex. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- WHO methods paper for the Global Health Estimates 2023, with the road injury code list. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- Eurostat reference metadata for road traffic deaths. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- Glossary for transport statistics, co-published by Eurostat, the UN and ITF, with the "person killed" definition. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- WHO rating of death registration completeness and usability by country. Retrieved 2026-10-25.
Sources considered and not used (8)
- WHO GHO API, indicator RS_198 (estimated road traffic death rate): ghoapi.azureedge.net answered every request with HTTP 500 on 2 November 2026, so no RS_198 values were read. WHO's methods paper says its Global Health Estimates use the same report's estimates for 2000-2021, so the WHO estimate line takes that table instead. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- ITF website (Road Safety Annual Report and country profiles): itf-oecd.org answered scripted downloads with HTTP 403 on 2 November 2026, as did oecd.org's road accidents page. ITF's data and dataset description came from the OECD SDMX API, and nothing was read from these reports. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- OECD/ITF rates with no count (Cambodia, Morocco after 2000): ITF's indicator table gives a rate for these, but its fatalities table has no count for those years. The ITF line here is count divided by UN population, so they are left out. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Eurostat tran_sf_roadus: It holds the same counts as sdg_11_40 and adds 1999, but only in whole persons per million, which rounds differently from sdg_11_40 in many years. The Eurostat line stays on one table. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO Mortality Database, United Kingdom parts: Eurostat and ITF give only the United Kingdom total, so the page uses WHO's total too and not England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- WHO Mortality Database, ICD-7 file: The ICD-7 file (morticd07.zip) ends in 1972, before the 1980 start of the series. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
- WHO Mortality Database, Rodrigues and former entities: Rodrigues is part of Mauritius, and former entities such as the Netherlands Antilles are not current countries.
- WHO Mortality Database, countries with no ICD-10 data: WHO's files hold ICD-9 or ICD-8 deaths for these countries but no year coded in ICD-10, so they have no WHO register line: Albania, Macau, Monaco, Myanmar, Sao Tome and Principe, Zimbabwe. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
Download, compare, cite and report an error
- Download every value on this page (CSV)
- Compare with another statistic
- Cite as: RealStats, “How many people die on the roads in each country?”, updated 2026-11-02, with the original sources listed on the page. Scores use formula version 1.0.
- Report an error on this page