Safety

This section allows you to explore data on road accidents and the casualties of road accidents. Analyses include the number of accidents or casualties by type of road-user and class of road.

To find out more about how data in this section have been compiled, the definitions used and associated caveats go to the Safety section of the Data Definitions and Caveats page.

The database provides information on the number of deaths by type of road user (pedestrian, motorcycle rider, car occupant, etc.) and by location (on a motorway, in an urban area, etc.). Because of differences in definitions between countries, data on traffic injuries are much less comparable between countries than data on fatalities. Data on injuries, and on the number of injury accidents, in different locations are provided, but should be treated with caution.

In developed countries, road safety is improving. Total fatalities are reducing despite continually increasing traffic, and the risk per vehicle kilometre is also falling. In contrast, in less developed countries, fatalities are rising. Eastern European countries and the Russian Federation have significantly worse road safety than countries from North west Europe.

WHO considers that road traffic fatalities are seriously underestimated in a number of countries especially China and Brazil. The database includes a datasheet comparing WHO estimates and official figures for road traffic fatalities.