How many people die on roads around the world every year?

By Stephen Beech

More than 1.3 million people were killed and another 50 million injured in road accidents around the world in just 12 months, reveals new research.

The study shows that road injuries were the leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 39 globally and the second-leading cause among children ages 5 to 9 years old.

In 2023, the latest year that figures are available for, road injuries caused 50.9 million injuries, 1.34 million deaths and 75.3 million years of healthy life lost globally.

Mortality rates are nearly six times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries, according to the findings published in The Lancet Public Health.

And more than 90% of deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries.

Globally, road injuries ranked as the 11th highest cause of death and accounted for 75.3 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a measure of total health loss that combines years of life lost to early death and years lived with disability.

Low-income countries had nearly six times the rate of years lost to premature death as high-income countries.

Based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study, researchers analyzed road injury trends across 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2023.

It provided the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of road injury burden worldwide.

Between 1990 and 2023, global age-standardized rates of new road injury cases and deaths declined by 38.3% and 32.3%, respectively.

But those gains were uneven across income groups with mortality rates falling most sharply in high-income countries, while low-income countries saw little measurable improvement.

While low-income countries had substantially fewer new road injury cases than high-income countries, they registered the highest mortality rate, at 43.8 deaths per 100,000 people.

By contrast, high-income countries had the highest rate of new road injury cases, at 858.1 cases per 100,000, but the lowest mortality rate, at 7.5 deaths per 100,000.

While many countries achieved meaningful reductions in road injury mortality over the past decade, the United States experienced one of the largest increases.

Overall, road injury mortality increased "significantly" in six countries between 2010 and 2023: Ghana, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Armenia, Costa Rica and the U.S., with increases ranging from 13.2% in the U.S. to 48.5% in Ghana.

The study was conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), based at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) in Seattle.

Study senior author Liane Ong, of the IHME, said: "Road injury outcomes are shaped not only by crashes, but by the systems designed to prevent them and protect people when they occur.

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"Road deaths are largely preventable, but progress requires sustained investment.

"Reducing them requires safer infrastructure, stronger safety policies, and better emergency care."

She said young people and adult men face the greatest risks.

Road injuries were the leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 39 globally and the second-leading cause of death among children ages 5 to 9 years old.

Among men ages 20 to 24, road injuries accounted for more than one in every five deaths.

Across nearly every age group, men experienced higher road injury incidence rates than women.

Burden also varied by road-user type, reflecting who is most exposed and vulnerable on the road.

Motor vehicle crashes accounted for the largest share of both road injuries and deaths worldwide, causing 19.8 million injuries and 518,000 deaths in 2023.

Pedestrian injuries made up nearly one-third of road injury deaths, while motorcyclist injuries represented just 13% of cases but nearly 24% of deaths.

The study also found "substantial" differences in injury severity.

Fractures were the most common non-fatal injury, accounting for more than 38% of cases, while head injuries occurred in around one in 10 cases.

Motorcyclists experienced the highest proportion of head injuries, most of which were moderate or severe traumatic brain injuries.

The more severe injuries were also disproportionately concentrated in low- and middle-income countries.

Road injuries place major strain on health and economic systems, according to the findings.

Beyond the physical toll on individuals and families, road injuries carry major social and economic costs worldwide.

The global economic cost of road injuries is projected to reach $1.8 trillion (£1.33 trillion) over the 2015-2030 period.

Road injuries also place long-term strain on health systems, workforces and economies.

Evidence suggests that more than 200,000 lives could be saved each year through enhanced trauma care coverage in low- and middle-income countries.

Marie Ng, affiliate associate professor at IHME and associate professor at the National University of Singapore, said: "Road safety should be treated as a public health priority, not just a transportation issue."

She added: "Reducing deaths and injuries requires moving beyond individual driver behavior and investing in systems that prevent crashes, strengthen trauma care, and implement evidence-based interventions tailored to the needs of each community."

As countries work toward the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal of halving road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030, Ng says stronger surveillance systems, safer road and vehicle standards and expanded access to emergency care will be "critical" to closing persistent global disparities.