How did the number of road deaths in the Netherlands develop compared to other countries?

Answer

The development of the Dutch number of road deaths in 2009-2018 is not very favourable. The decrease in the number of road deaths not being significant, the Netherlands is at the lower range of the ranking of assessed countries. The strongest long-term decreases in the number of road deaths are seen in Greece, Norway and Lithuania.

Figure 3. Long-term development (2009-2018) of the number of road deaths, ranked according to the magnitude of the change. The blue bar represents the 95% confidence interval, i.e. it is 95% certain that the true value is somewhere between the ends of the bar. Sources: Statistics Netherlands, CARE and IRTAD (deaths), consulted October 2020.

It is remarkable that, like the Netherlands, some of the countries that score well on mortality and fatality risk, do not score well on the development of the number of road deaths. Sweden and the United Kingdom are examples. Further analysis shows that there is indeed a statistical link between mortality and developments in the ten-year period 2009-2018 [1]: countries that scored well at the start, later showed less favourable developments and vice versa. However, this does not apply to all countries. Thus, Norway, Switzerland and Denmark score well on both mortality and on development in the ten-year period.

Figure 4. Link between the number of road deaths per billion inhabitants (mortality) in the base year (2009) and the long-term development (2009-2018) in the number of road deaths in different European countries. Sources: Statistics Netherlands and CARE (deaths), Eurostat (population), consulted October 2020.

Part of fact sheet

Dutch road safety in an international perspective

This fact sheet considers road safety in the Netherlands from an international perspective.

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