Malta boasts one of the lowest average road fatality rates in the EU, possibly no surprise in view of its short distances.
A European Commission report shows that following two years of solid decreases in the number of people killed on Europe's roads, the first reports on road deaths in 2014 were disappointing. The number of road fatalities decreased by approximately 1% compared to 2013. This followed on the 8% decrease in 2012 and 2013.
A total of 25,700 road deaths took place in 2014 across all 28 Member States of the EU. Whilst this was 5700 fewer than in 2010, it fell short of the intended target decrease.
Violeta Bulc, EU Commissioner for Transport said: "It's sad and hard to accept that almost 70 Europeans die on our roads every day, with many more being seriously injured. The figures published today should be a wake-up call. Behind the figures and statistics there are grieving spouses, parents, children, siblings, colleagues and friends. They also remind us that road safety requires constant attention and further efforts." She added: "We need to step up our work for the coming years, to reach the intended EU target of halving the number of road deaths by 2020. Let's work together to make sure more people come home safely at the end of their journey. This is one of my priorities and should be one of the priorities of all governments in all the Member States!"
In 2014, the number of road deaths varied greatly across the EU. The average EU fatality rate for 2014 was 51 road deaths per million inhabitants. Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom reported the lowest road fatality rates, with less than 30 deaths per million inhabitants. Four countries still reported fatality rates above 90 dead per million inhabitants: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.
Some European countries reported a better than average road safety improvement over the years. This was the case of notably Greece, Portugal and Spain. Equally Denmark, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Romania, Italy, Slovenia and the Czech Republic reported a reduction of road deaths above the EU average for 2010-2014.
Preliminary country by country statistics on road deaths for 2014
|
Fatalities per million inhabitants (road fatality rate) |
Evolution of total number of fatalities |
||||
|
2010 |
2013 |
2014 |
2010 - 2014 |
2013 - 2014 |
|
|
Austria |
66 |
54 |
51 |
-22% |
-5% |
|
Belgium |
77 |
65 |
64 |
-15% |
-1% |
|
Bulgaria |
105 |
83 |
90 |
-16% |
9% |
|
Croatia |
99 |
86 |
73 |
-28% |
-16% |
|
Cyprus |
73 |
51 |
52 |
-25% |
2% |
|
Czech Republic |
77 |
62 |
61 |
-20% |
-3% |
|
Denmark |
46 |
34 |
33 |
-28% |
-4% |
|
Estonia |
59 |
61 |
59 |
-1% |
-4% |
|
Finland |
51 |
48 |
41 |
-18% |
-14% |
|
France |
64 |
51 |
53 |
-15% |
4% |
|
Germany |
45 |
41 |
42 |
-8% |
1% |
|
Greece |
112 |
79 |
72 |
-37% |
-9% |
|
Hungary |
74 |
60 |
63 |
-15% |
6% |
|
Ireland |
47 |
41 |
43 |
-7% |
4% |
|
Italy |
70 |
57 |
52 |
-23% |
-6% |
|
Latvia |
103 |
88 |
106 |
-3% |
18% |
|
Lithuania |
95 |
86 |
90 |
-11% |
4% |
|
Luxembourg |
64 |
84 |
65 |
13% |
-20% |
|
Malta |
36 |
43 |
26 |
-27% |
-39% |
|
Netherlands |
32 |
28 |
- |
-11% |
- |
|
Poland |
102 |
87 |
84 |
-17% |
-3% |
|
Portugal |
80 |
61 |
59 |
-34% |
-3% |
|
Romania |
117 |
93 |
91 |
-24% |
-2% |
|
Slovakia |
65 |
46 |
54 |
-18% |
16% |
|
Slovenia |
67 |
61 |
52 |
-22% |
-14% |
|
Spain |
53 |
36 |
36 |
-32% |
0% |
|
Sweden |
28 |
27 |
29 |
3% |
6% |
|
United Kingdom2 |
30 |
28 |
29 |
-4% |
3% |
|
EU |
62 |
51 |
50.5 |
-18% |
-1% |