In the 8th March the Commission published preliminary figures on road fatalities for 2023. Around 20,400 people were killed in road crashes in the EU last year, a small 1% decrease on 2022. Despite some progress since the baseline year of 20191, few Member States are on track to meet the target of halving the number of road deaths by 2030.
EU-wide, road deaths in 2023 fell by 1% on the previous year. While this represents around 2,360 fewer fatalities (-10%) compared with 2019, the downward trend has flatlined in several Member States.
Since 2019, the number of road deaths has scarcely fallen in Spain, France and Italy, while it has risen in Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden. In contrast, over the last four years, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Hungary and Poland2 are on track to meet the 50% reduction target in road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 (It is important to note that this is based on preliminary and often partial data).
The overall ranking of countries’ fatality rates has not changed significantly, with the safest roads still found in Sweden (22 deaths per one million inhabitants) and Denmark (27/million). Bulgaria (82/million) and Romania (81/million) reported the highest fatality rates in 2023. The EU average was 46 road deaths per million inhabitants.
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