2024 sees 3% drop in EU road fatalities, yet progress remains slow

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the European Commission is publishing preliminary figures on road fatalities for 2024. Around 19,800 people were killed in road crashes in the EU last year, a slight 3% drop compared to 2023.  It is the equivalent to 600 fewer lives lost. Even if road fatalities decreased more significantly in 2024 than they did in 2023, the overall pace of improvement remains too slow, and most Member States are not on track to meet the EU’s goal of halving road deaths by 2030. In March 2023, to strengthen its commitment to road safety, the Commission introduced a package of proposals to improve road safety, including updated driving licence requirements and cross-border enforcement, and will soon adopt new roadworthiness legislation to reduce unsafe vehicles on EU roads.

Diverging trends across Member States

Road Safety progress across the EU remains uneven, with some countries making significant strides while others struggle to reduce fatalities. Over the past five years, Greece, Spain, France, and Italy have seen only modest declines in road deaths, while Ireland and Estonia have experienced an increase – although annual fluctuations in smaller countries tend to be more pronounced. In contrast, Bulgaria, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia are making strong progress toward the 50% reduction target.

Sweden and Denmark remain the safest countries in terms of road safety, with low fatality rates of 20 and 24 deaths per million inhabitants, respectively. Meanwhile, Romania (77/million) and Bulgaria (74/million), which still have some of the highest fatality rates, have made significant progress in reducing road deaths, with declines of over 20% since 2019. The EU average is 44 road deaths per million inhabitants.

Most affected groups and risk factors

Rural roads continue to pose the greatest risk, with 52% of fatalities occurring on these roads. The majority of road deaths (77%) involve men, while older adults (65+) and young people (18-24) are particularly vulnerable road users. In terms of road user type, car occupants account for the largest share of fatalities, followed by motorcyclists (20%), pedestrians (18%), and cyclists (10%). Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, make up nearly 70% of urban fatalities, highlighting the urgent need for improved safety measures to protect them.

Background

In 2018, the EU set itself a 50% reduction target for road deaths – and, for the first time, also serious injuries – by 2030. This was set out in the Commission’s Strategic Action Plan on Road Safety and EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030, which also laid out road safety plans aiming to reach zero road deaths by 2050 (‘Vision Zero’).

In March 2023, the Commission put forward a package of proposals tackling road safety, including updated requirements for driving licences and better cross-border enforcement of road traffic rules. To further contribute to these efforts, the Commission will soon adopt new proposals to revise its roadworthiness legislation, aiming to reduce the number of unsafe vehicles on EU roads and related crashes.

Road safety has also been a core element of EU mobility policy initiatives, including the  Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the new TEN-T regulation and the Urban Mobility Framework.

Along with today’s statistics, the European Road Safety Observatory also published a new annual statistical report with data up to 2023 and in-depth thematic reports on road safety in relation to children, professional drivers and traffic safety culture.

For more information

Road safety statistics 2024 in more detail

Road deaths – preliminary data for 2024

Source: EU CARE database on road crashes and national sources; Population data is from Eurostat

The 2024 figures are based on preliminary data for most countries and are subject to changes when the final data are released in autumn 2025. Estimates for 2024 cover the whole year and all roads and refer to deaths within 30 days but for the following countries they are based on partial data: Belgium and Portugal (each based on data for the first six months). Note that in the Netherlands, police-registered fatalities are under-reported by around 10-15%. There were 3 road deaths in Liechtenstein in 2024. 

Data for 2024 is compared with three time-periods: 2023 (the previous year), 2019 (the baseline year for the target of 50% fewer deaths by 2030) and the average of 2017-19 (to take account of fluctuations in small countries). The percentage changes in the table are based on the absolute number of fatalities rather than the rate per million population.