In this fact page we will take a look at the UK’s road death and casualty statistics, further analysing the data for each country, road user, road type and demographic.

Every
20 minutes
someone is killed or seriously injured on UK roads
How UK road safety statistics are collated Down arrow icon to open accordion
  • Statistics for road death and injury in Great Britain are collated and published by the Department for Transport. The information used to create these statistics are collected by police forces, either through officers attending the scene of crashes or from members of the public reporting a crash in police stations after the incident, or online. The police record crash statistics using a form called Stats19.
  • Statistics for Northern Ireland are collated and published by Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Road deaths and serious injuries in the UK

The number of road deaths in the UK has plateaued since 2012 at around 1,850 deaths a year, or the equivalent of five a day, on average.

The trend relating to serious injuries is more difficult to analyse, as the method the police use to record severity has changed in recent years. When accounting for the changes in reporting the estimated number of serious injuries since 2010 has declined slightly, albeit at a slower rate than before 2010. However, the total figure is still in excess of 25,000 serious injuries a year, or the equivalent of around 70 a day, on average.

Road deaths in GB (1979-2019)
Road deaths in reported road crashes in Great Britain, 1979-2019, DfT RRCGB 2020

Use the Government's free road crash statistics tool to find out more

www.gov.uk

Use the free CrashMap tool to get information about crashes on roads near you

www.crashmap.co.uk
Road casualties by country, 2019 Down arrow icon to open accordion

United Kingdom

  • 1,808 road deaths
  • 26,719 serious injuries
  • 133,503 slight injuries
  • 162,030 casualties of all severities

Great Britain

  • 1,752 road deaths
  • 25,945 serious injuries
  • 125,461 slight injuries
  • 153,158 casualties of all severities

England

  • 1,489 road deaths
  • 22,854 serious injuries
  • 115,436 slight injuries
  • 139,779 casualties of all severities

Wales

  • 98 road deaths
  • 1,092 serious injuries
  • 4,599 slight injuries
  • 5,789 casualties of all severities

Scotland

  • 165 road deaths
  • 1,999 serious injuries
  • 5,426 slight injuries
  • 7,590 casualties of all severities

Northern Ireland

  • 56 road deaths
  • 774 serious injuries
  • 8,042 slight injuries
  • 8,872 casualties of all severities

RAS30034: Reported casualties by severity, road user type and country: United Kingdom

Road casualties by transport mode, GB, 2019 Down arrow icon to open accordion

Car occupants comprise, by far, the highest number of road deaths in Great Britain, however, this is unsurprising as car traffic comprises around 80% of all travel on British roads.

Percentage of road deaths by transport mode, GB, 2019

  • Car occupants = 42%
  • Pedestrians = 27%
  • Motorcyclists = 19%
  • Pedal cyclists = 6%
  • Other = 6%

The rate of casualties and deaths on the roads, per passenger mile travelled, provides a valuable understanding of the relative risk of different modes of transport and clearly shows that motorcyclists, pedal cyclists. and pedestrians as the most vulnerable road users.

Casualty rate (per bn passenger miles), by transport mode, GB, 2019

  • Motorcyclists = 5,051
  • Pedal cyclists = 4,891
  • Pedestrians = 1,640
  • Car occupants = 195

Death rate (per bn passenger miles), by transport mode, GB, 2019

  • Motorcyclists = 104.6
  • Pedestrians = 35.4
  • Pedal cyclists = 29,0
  • Car occupants = 1.6
Casualty rate by mode of transport (2019)
Casualty rate (per bn passenger miles), by transport mode, GB, 2019, DfT RRCGB 2020
Road casualties by age and transport mode, GB 2019 Down arrow icon to open accordion

Pedestrian deaths / serious injuries

  • Children (0-15) = 18 / 1,257
  • Young people (16-24) = 41 / 783
  • Adults (25-59) = 196 / 2,294
  • Adults (60+) = 215 / 1,444

Pedal cyclist deaths / serious injuries

  • Children (0-15) = 10 / 373
  • Young people (16-24) = 2 / 460
  • Adults (25-59) = 57 / 2,368
  • Adults (60+) = 31/ 453

Car occupant deaths / serious injuries

  • Children (0-15) = 9 / 488
  • Young people (16-24) = 149 / 2,186
  • Adults (25-59) = 277 / 5,009
  • Adults (60+) = 301 / 2,222

Motorcyclist occupant deaths / serious injuries

  • Children (0-15) = 1 / 58
  • Young people (16-24) = 62 / 1,404
  • Adults (25-59) = 224 / 3,321
  • Adults (60+) = 49 / 463

RAS30024: Reported casualties by age band, road user type and severity

Casulalty rate by age and mode (2019)
Fatality rate per million population, by age band and road user type, GB: 2019, DfT RRCGB 2020