Recent research has revealed that the UK is no longer the safest country to drive in. It has now been overtaken by Sweden and Norway. The study ranks all countries based upon the number of deaths per million inhabitants.
The data reveals that Norway is the safest country for driving in Europe statistically. In 2022, the country recorded only 21.38 deaths per million inhabitants. In 2014, the Norwegian Institute of Transport Research highlighted the growing significance of car safety features for motorists, emphasising how a decrease in average speeds on Norwegian roads has played a crucial role in significantly lowering fatalities.
However, there is solace in the fact that the UK hasn’t taken a step backwards. It is simply that the improvements in Sweden and Norway exceeded the UK’s improvement over the last 10 years.
Other interesting facts which can be seen in the data is that the least safe countries are all neighbours: Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria. Also, there are only two countries where death rates have increased over the 10 year period – in Malta and the Netherlands.
What causes a country to have safe roads?
- Is it the enforcement authorities’ action and frequency of enforcement cameras?
- Is it road speeds?
- Is it the road construction and signage?
- Is it population density?
- Is it cultural?
- Is it weather conditions?
- Is it the safety features of the vehicles driven?
In truth, it is probably a combination of all those factors and others to boot.
What can HGV operators do to reduce deaths on the roads?
Probably the most important thing is training and monitoring of drivers, whilst also ensuring their vehicles and brakes are properly maintained. In other words, complying with your operator’s licence best practice guidance.
Sometimes it is all too easy to forget the real reason why the DVSA and Traffic Commissioners are making operators do things. Operators often say it feels like compliance and paperwork, just for the sake of it, or that the UK’s compliance requirements are much stricter that the rest of Europe.
At the end of the day, the motivation for adopting best practice is that it will simply save lives.
Source: European Transport Safety Council, national road death statistics provided by the PIN panellists for each country, completed with Eurostat for population data
| Rank |
Country |
Road deaths per mln inhabitants (2012) |
Road deaths per mln inhabitants (2022) |
Percentage change 2012-2022 |
| 1 |
Romania |
95.62 |
85.81 |
-10.26% |
| 2 |
Serbia |
95.01 |
82.65 |
-13.01% |
| 3 |
Bulgaria |
82.62 |
77.64 |
-6.02% |
| 4 |
Croatia |
91.91 |
71.20 |
-22.53% |
| 5 |
Portugal |
68.11 |
62.30 |
-8.53% |
| 6 |
Greece |
87.51 |
60.71 |
-30.63% |
| 7 |
Latvia |
86.69 |
60.24 |
-30.51% |
| 8 |
Luxembourg |
64.78 |
55.78 |
-13.89% |
| 9 |
Hungary |
60.76 |
55.22 |
-9.12% |
| 10 |
Italy |
61.71 |
53.70 |
-12.97% |
| 11 |
Poland |
92.66 |
50.35 |
-45.66% |
| 12 |
Czech Republic |
70.63 |
50.11 |
-29.05% |
| 13 |
Malta |
21.56 |
49.91 |
131.52% |
| 14 |
France |
57.61 |
48.05 |
-16.59% |
| 15 |
Slovakia |
54.77 |
44.90 |
-18.03% |
| 16 |
Belarus |
74.54 |
44.85 |
-39.84% |
| 17 |
Lithuania |
100.41 |
42.77 |
-57.41% |
| 18 |
Netherlands |
38.85 |
41.90 |
7.84% |
| 19 |
Austria |
62.89 |
41.21 |
-34.48% |
| 20 |
Cyprus |
59.16 |
40.90 |
-30.87% |
| 21 |
Slovenia |
63.25 |
40.34 |
-36.22% |
| 22 |
Estonia |
64.94 |
37.54 |
-42.19% |
| 23 |
Spain |
41.19 |
37.08 |
-9.98% |
| 24 |
Israel |
37.82 |
36.61 |
-3.18% |
| 25 |
Finland |
47.21 |
34.43 |
-27.08% |
| 26 |
Germany |
44.00 |
33.35 |
-24.20% |
| 27 |
Republic of Ireland |
35.57 |
30.83 |
-13.32% |
| 28 |
Switzerland |
42.62 |
27.58 |
-35.29% |
| 29 |
Denmark |
29.93 |
26.22 |
-12.38% |
| 30 |
United Kingdom |
28.61 |
25.89 |
-9.51% |
| 31 |
Sweden |
30.05 |
21.72 |
-27.74% |
| 32 |
Norway |
29.08 |
21.38 |
-26.48% |