16th Annual Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Report
The EU27 collectively reduced the number of road deaths by 31% over the period 2011-2021, from 28,865 in 2011 to 19,823 in 2021. There were 57,095 fewer deaths on EU roads over the last decade than there would have been if deaths had continued at the same level as in 2011.
The overall progress in reducing road deaths on EU roads was positive from 2011 until 2014 with a 16% decrease. But the good start to the decade was followed by five consecutive years of stagnation. In 2020 there was an exceptional drop of 17% compared to 2019, strongly related to Covid-19 travel restrictions across Europe. Similarly, 2021 saw a drop of 13% with respect to 2019, but the number of road deaths increased by 5% with respect to 2020, influenced by a gradual relaxation of travel restrictions across Europe.
Road deaths in the EU27 in 2021 were reduced collectively by an unprecedented 13% compared to 2019. In order to reach the 2030 EU target by uniform annual percentage reductions from the number in 2019, road deaths should decrease by 6.1% each year, which would mean a reduction of 11.8% by 2021. The larger reduction of 13% can, to a large extent, be attributed to Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions. There is no guarantee that this progress can be maintained if traffic volumes revert to the way they were before the pandemic.
The number of people recorded as seriously injured, based on national definitions, decreased in 24 out of 28 PIN countries that collect data over the period 2011-2021. In the EU23 collectively, serious road traffic injures dropped by 18%. Numbers of serious road traffic injuries in the EU as a whole stagnated during most of the decade, to suddenly drop in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
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