Multi-Country Per Capita Fatality Data For 2022

Last updated on January 20, 2023 (re USA and Republic of Ireland) and on January 29 (Jamaica)

 

OECDa

Pos’n

Per Capita bDeath Rate

Country

Number of  cDeaths in 2021

Population d(millions)

Number of  mDeaths in 2022

  1—-    3.29Brunei         12 g      0.37 
  2—-    4.00Malta         16      0.4 
  3—-    5.62F Y R Macedonia       118      2.1 
  4  1    5.81United Kingdom    3,508 ae    60.3         3,221ae
  5  2    5.88Sweden       529      9.0 
  6  3    6.01Norway       280      4.6 
  7  4    6.31Netherlands    1,028    16.3 
  8  5    6.97Japan    8,877 t  127.3 
  9  6    7.02Finland       379     5.2     370/377 aa/ac
10=  7=    7.33Switzerland       546     7.45 
10=  7=    7.33Iceland         22     0.3 
12     7.54Albania       264     3.5 
13     7.77Israel       482     6.2 
14     7.94Serbia and Montenegro       858    10.8 
15  9    8.00Denmark

       432

      5.4 
1610    8.03Germany    6,613    82.4 
1711    8.21Australia    1,634 v    19.9 
1812    8.43Ireland       337      4.0 
19     8.46Ireland — Republic of       336 k      3.97 
2013    8.55Canada    2,778 x    32.5 
21     9.09Azerbaijan       718      7.9 
2214    9.49France    5,731    60.4 
23     9.66Moldova       425      4.4 
24     9.98Romania    2,235    22.4 
25      >10Bahrain   
2615  11.36Austria

       931

      8.2 
2716  11.48New Zealand       459 y      4.0             435 y
2817  11.52Luxembourg         53      0.46 
2918  11.7   sItaly             s    58.0 
3019  12.09Slovak Republic       653      5.4 
3120  12.10Slovenia       242      2.0 
32   12.17Georgia       572      4.7 
33   12.62Estonia       164      1.3 
34   12.80Bulgaria       960      7.5 
3521  12.91Portugal    1,356    10.5 
3622   —–Turkey    3,966 f    68.9 
3723  13.26Hungary    1,326    10.0 
3824  13.40Spain    5,399    40.3 
3925  14.19Czech Republic    1,447    10.2 
4026  14.5   rBelgium             r    10.3 
4127  14.61Poland    5,640    38.6 
42   14.7Jamaica       399 l     2.71 
4328  14.75 agU.S.A.  42,884 ag  290.8 j        42,636 af
4429  14.9   uRepub. of Korea             u    48.6 
4530  15.24Greece    1,615    10.6 
46   15.58Croatia       701      4.5 
47   16.67Liechtenstein           5      0.03 
48   17.12Belarus    1,763    10.3 
49   18.37China 238,584 z 1298.8 
50   19.69Lithuania       709      3.6 
51   21.43Latvia       493      2.3 
52   24.77Russian Federation  35,600   143.7      >34,000 q
53   25.3  abSouth Africa  12,353     44.3ab 
54   26.75Malaysia    6,286 h    23.5          6,223 p
   Cyprus      0.78             117 n
   Ghana    20.8             649 o

DSA Comments

     It must be remembered that there are three primary measures for comparing multi-national crash and fatality data: the deaths per 100,000 population or per capita rate, as shown here, deaths in relation to overall distance travelled (known in the USA as the VMT rate), and deaths in relation to the number of registered motor vehicles in the country. All three measures should be considered when comparing disparate countries but using just one of these methods is generally acceptable when comparing countries of similar status (e.g. “highly motorised countries” [HMCs], developed nations, third world countries, etc.).

     As a result, some countries in the above table may appear to present bizarre results, either because — like China, for example — they have a very high death toll but it is offset by a huge population, or they simply have, say, a very low proportion of motor vehicles per head of population — such as Brunei, that is currently at the head of the per capita table, or Ghana.

     There is also the question of how, exactly, a traffic fatality is defined in any particular country. Some may only include deaths at the scene, whereas others will stipulate deaths within 24 hours, and some may allow a full week or even 30 days.

     In some cases, therefore, the data for the number of deaths simply cannot be relied upon as being accurate. In Turkey, for example, the national press state that over 9,000 people are killed in road crashes each year, and yet each year data is published by that country giving a much lower body count. For that reason we have elected to position Turkey in the table to allow for an approximate per capita rate of 13.06 (based on the aforementioned 9,000 estimate) but have not shown the rate in the relevant column.