World international road fatality rates

[WHBM]

BBC story showing road fatality rates in different continents.

In 2013 Europe was 100 per million population, and at the other end of the scale Africa was 250 per million. Actually, at 2.5 times, I am surprised they are so close. I believe you can get a differential greater than that just within European countries. I do recall when I saw the figures long ago that at the time Turkey was 27 times the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46486231

[roadtester]

BBC story showing road fatality rates in different continents.

In 2013 Europe was 100 per million population, and at the other end of the scale Africa was 250 per million. Actually, at 2.5 times, I am surprised they are so close. I believe you can get a differential greater than that just within European countries. I do recall when I saw the figures long ago that at the time Turkey was 27 times the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46486231

Wouldn’t that be the difference between per head figures and mileage-based figures?

[Euan]

The countries within the WHO regions with the highest road fatality rates generally have a significantly lower car ownership rate. Across Africa the number of vehicles per person is merely around 5% of that of Europe which might be a reason for the road fatality rate only being 2.5 times greater in Africa than in Europe. Those figures would probably diverge markedly if suddenly there was a spike in car ownership rates in Africa, with only around half of African countries having speed limits in place and in many cases having road infrastructure that would struggle to cope with an increased volume of traffic.

[WHBM]

The countries within the WHO regions with the highest road fatality rates generally have a significantly lower car ownership rate. Across Africa the number of vehicles per person is merely around 5% of that of Europe which might be a reason for the road fatality rate only being 2.5 times greater in Africa than in Europe. Those figures would probably diverge markedly if suddenly there was a spike in car ownership rates in Africa, with only around half of African countries having speed limits in place and in many cases having road infrastructure that would struggle to cope with an increased volume of traffic.

The road fatality figures are not only car owners. They include Tuk-Tuks, motorbikes/scooters, cyclists, pedestrians, HGVs, and (as described in the article links) bus accidents, which latter in third world countries can have some notably high fatalities. Fewer may have cars, but all are road users.

[Vierwielen]

The countries within the WHO regions with the highest road fatality rates generally have a significantly lower car ownership rate. Across Africa the number of vehicles per person is merely around 5% of that of Europe which might be a reason for the road fatality rate only being 2.5 times greater in Africa than in Europe. Those figures would probably diverge markedly if suddenly there was a spike in car ownership rates in Africa, with only around half of African countries having speed limits in place and in many cases having road infrastructure that would struggle to cope with an increased volume of traffic.

The road fatality figures are not only car owners. They include Tuk-Tuks, motorbikes/scooters, cyclists, pedestrians, HGVs, and (as described in the article links) bus accidents, which latter in third world countries can have some notably high fatalities. Fewer may have cars, but all are road users.

To help put this into perspective, in 2016 South Africa had 14,071 road deaths (38% jaywalking pedestrians), while the EU as a whole had 25,300. The UK's annual total is around the 2000 mark (maybe a little lower). South Africa's population is 57 million against the UK's 66 million.

Car ownership in the UK is 468 per thousand, in South Africa 165 per thousand. The other two most populaous African countries are Nigeria with 61 and Egypt with 45.

[J N Winkler]

I dimly remember seeing IRTAD fatality rates expressed as deaths per VMT that were disaggregated by road type--motorways versus other roads. Though this can lead to methodological problems (e.g., the US figures ignored non-Interstate freeways), it gave an indication of how countries differed in managing fatalities on roads of similar type. Current IRTAD tables don't disaggregate by road type and express all rates as deaths per 100,000 population, which is useful for epidemiology but not for evaluating road design policy.