More than 43,000 people died on European Roads in 2004

Publication date: 18 September 2006

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, published today statistics on passenger cars and road accident deaths in the EU25 and the Member States, as well as the EFTA countries.

More than 43 000 deaths due to road accidents in the EU25 in 2004
There were 95 road accident deaths1 per million inhabitants in the EU25 in 2004, the rate having decreased steadily from 162 in 1991. Even if the rate has fallen in nearly all Member States, the total number of deaths due to road accidents was more than 43 000 in the EU25 in 2004.

The fatality rate halved or more between 1991 and 2004 in Portugal, Estonia, Spain, Germany, France and Luxembourg. In 2004, the Member States with the lowest rates were Malta (33 deaths per million inhabitants), the Netherlands (49), Sweden (53) and the United Kingdom (56). Latvia (222), Lithuania (218), Cyprus (160) and Poland (150) recorded the highest rates. In the USA the rate was 146 in 2004.

Most cars per inhabitant in Luxembourg, Italy and Portugal
There were 216 million passenger cars in total in the EU25 in 2004. Between 1990 and 2004, the total number of cars in the EU25 increased by 38%. The largest increases were recorded in Lithuania (+167%), Latvia (+142%), Portugal (+135%), Poland (+128%) and Greece (+121%). On the other hand, Sweden (+14%), Denmark (+20%) and Finland (+21%) registered the smallest increases.

There were 472 cars per 1 000 inhabitants on average in the EU25 in 2004, compared to 759 cars per 1 000 inhabitants in the USA in 2003. The Member State with the highest ratio was Luxembourg, with 659 cars per 1000 inhabitants. Italy (581), Portugal (572), Germany (546), Malta (525) and Austria (501) also recorded more than one car per two inhabitants. At the other end of the scale were Slovakia (222), Hungary (280) and Latvia (297).

In 2004, more than 90% of the cars in Sweden (95%), Denmark (93% in 2002) and Cyprus (90%) had petrol engines, while the Member States with the highest shares of diesel engines were Austria (49%), Belgium (47%) and France (43% in 2003).

For more information:
- Eurostat: More than 43,000 deaths due to road accidents in the EU25 in 2004

7-19092006-EN-AP.pdf (32 KB)