Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2023

Published 26 September 2024

1. About this release

This release provides the number of personal injury road traffic casualties in Great Britain that were reported by the police to the Department for Transport in 2023 using the STATS19 reporting system.

This report focuses on severity, road user group, age and sex of these casualties, compared with previous years and over the last decade (that is, since 2013). Other variables and a longer time series are available in accompanying data tables, via our interactive casualty dashboard, data download tool and open dataset.

These are accredited official statistics^{[footnote 1]} and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2009. For more information, see the about these statistics section.

We welcome any feedback on the statistics, by email to roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk.

2. Headline figures

Chart 1 shows the trend in fatal road casualties over the last 4 decades. Since 1979, there has been a general downward trend in the number of people killed on roads in Great Britain with a flatter trend in the decade since 2010. In 2023, road casualties showed a decline from 2022, representing a return to the trends seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2023, the final estimates are:

• 1,624 fatalities, a decline of 5% compared to 2022

• 29,711 killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties, little change compared to 2022

• 132,977 casualties of all severities, a decline of 2% compared to 2022

Considering road collision rates per billion miles travelled, the final estimates show:

• 334 billion vehicle miles travelled in 2023, a return to travel levels seen in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic

• 5 road fatalities per billion vehicle miles travelled in 2023, down 7% compared to 2022

The final estimates further show:

• of the four major road user types the one with the biggest estimated percentage change for 2023 compared to 2022 for fatalities was motorcyclists, which showed a decline of 10%

• in 2023, 75% of fatalities and 61% of casualties of all severities were male

• in international comparisons for 2023, Great Britain ranked 3 out of 33 countries with available data for lowest number of road fatalities per million population

Chart 1: Reported road fatalities in Great Britain, 1979 to 2023

Statistical summary
Between 2022 and 2023, there was a small decline in reported road casualties in Great Britain with casualty numbers broadly following the trends observed before the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of fatalities in 2023 is the lowest recorded, outside of years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, although fatality figures are relatively low and can fluctuate from year to year. Overall casualties have returned to the steady decline observed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the number of killed or seriously injured casualties has fallen less, particularly since 2017.

While car occupants accounted for the majority of road casualties in 2023, the highest casualty rates per billion miles travelled were for motorcyclists, indicating that a person is more likely to be injured on the road when travelling by motorcycle.

In 2023, very few casualties were recorded on motorways, despite motorways accounting for a fifth of all road traffic in Great Britain, indicating that a person is less likely to be involved in a collision when travelling on a motorway compared to urban or rural roads.

3. Things you need to know

3.1 Severity adjustment

The figures in this release for injured casualties are based on adjusting figures reported by the police to take account of changes in the reporting of injury severity by some police forces in recent years. These adjusted figures can reliably be used to compare trends over time across the country. More details can be found in our severity adjustments guidance.

3.2 Data coverage

There is no obligation for people to report all personal injury collisions to the police. These figures, therefore, do not represent the full range of all collisions or casualties in Great Britain. All collisions reported by the police and that occurred on a public highway involving at least one motor vehicle, horse rider or pedal cyclist, and where at least one person was injured, are included in these statistics.

Unexpected issues with data collection for 2 police forces - Avon and Somerset Police, and Staffordshire Police - mean the reliability and accuracy of the recorded road collisions in these 2 regions cannot be guaranteed as some collisions may have been misrecorded or not recorded at all. This is unlikely to noticeably impact on the overall Great Britain road collision trends, but caution should be applied when considering geographical breakdowns by police force area (RAS0401) and local authority (RAS0403).

More information on STATS19, how road traffic casualty data is collected from police forces and how these figures are produced can be found in the accompanying guidance.

4. Overall casualties and rates

This report considers casualty patterns both in terms of absolute counts and in terms of casualty rates taking into account distance travelled. Casualty rates are calculated by dividing counts by vehicle or pedestrian mileage.

4.1 Casualties by severity

Casualties are broken down into fatalities (people killed in road collisions), and those injured (further split into seriously and slightly injured based on type of injury sustained). Killed and seriously injured casualties are commonly grouped together as ‘KSIs’.

It has long been known that non-fatal (and particularly slight) casualties are under-reported to the police, though we believe that the trends shown are likely to reflect genuine changes. Further information is available in the quality section below.

Chart 2 and Table 1 show the trend in road casualties by severity over the last decade. Trends in road casualties are affected by a wide range of factors, with 2020 and 2021 being impacted by COVID-19. There is a decrease in casualty numbers between 2022 and 2023 - this is a return to the trends seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Casualty counts are also impacted by traffic levels with casualty trends following a broadly similar pattern to motor traffic (in terms of billion vehicle miles) during periods of national COVID-19 lockdown. Trends in casualty rates are further explored in the next section. In 2023, there were 334 billion vehicle miles travelled, up 2% compared to 2022.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2023, there were an estimated:

• 1,624 fatalities, a decline of 5% compared to 2022

• 29,711 KSI casualties, little change compared to 2022

• 132,977 casualties of all severities, a decline of 2% compared to 2022

Chart 2: Reported road casualties by severity and all road traffic (billion vehicle miles) in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 RAS0201

Table 1: Reported road casualties by severity in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0201

Severity	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Killed	1,624	-5	-5
Seriously injured (adjusted)	28,087	0	-10
KSI (adjusted)	29,711	0	-9
Slightly injured (adjusted)	103,266	-2	-32
All casualties	132,977	-2	-28
Traffic (billion vehicle miles)	334	2	8

4.2 Trends in casualty rates

Chart 3 and Table 2 show the trend in road casualty rates over the last decade. These show that the rates of fatalities and KSIs have declined slightly over the last 10 years, with this stabilising in recent years. The overall casualty rate has fallen steadily over the last 10 years.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2023, there were an estimated:

• 5 fatalities per billion vehicle miles travelled, a decline of 7% compared to 2022

• 89 KSI casualties per billion vehicle miles travelled, a decline of 2% compared to 2022

• 398 casualties of all severities per billion vehicle miles travelled, a decline of 4% compared to 2022

Chart 3: Reported road casualty rates per billion vehicle miles by severity in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 RAS0201

Table 2: Reported road casualty rates per billion vehicle miles by severity in Great Britain, 2023 compared to 2022 and 2013 RAS0201

Severity	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Fatalites per billion vehicle miles	5	-7	-12
KSIs per billion vehicle miles	89	-2	-16
Casualties per billion vehicle miles	398	-4	-33

5. Casualties and rates by road user type

Car occupant casualties accounted for 45% of road fatalities and 55% of all road casualties in 2023, and the majority of road collisions involved at least one car.

Vulnerable road users include pedestrians, pedal cyclists, motorcyclists and e-scooter users. These users have higher casualty rates than other vehicle occupants. However very few other road users are killed in collisions involving pedestrians or cyclists. Our separate road safety factsheets provide more detail on pedal cycle, motorcyclist, pedestrian and e-scooter casualties.

5.1 Vehicles involved in fatal collisions

Chart 4 and Table 3 show the number of fatalities in collisions involving different types of vehicle (note that figures across all vehicle types do not sum to total fatalities, as a collision can involve more than one type of vehicle). This shows that in 2023 most fatalities occurred in collisions involving a car, consistent with previous years.

The relationship between vehicles and casualties in collisions is explored further in our road user risk factsheet.

Chart 4: Reported road fatalities in collisions involving different types of vehicles in Great Britain, 2023 compared to 2022 RAS0601

Table 3: Reported road fatalities in collisions involving different types of vehicles in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0601

Vehicle	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Car	1,255	-6	-6
Motorcycle	336	-7	-3
LGV	196	-8	21
HGV	188	-15	-27
Pedal cycle	92	-2	-24
Bus or coach	59	31	-16

5.2 Fatalities and rates by road user type

The 4 main road user types (car occupants, pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists) are used in the charts below to show comparisons between 2023 and 2022.

Chart 5 and Table 4 show fatalities for different road users over the past decade. This shows that in 2023, the group with the largest number of fatalities was car occupants, with numbers at a similar level to what was seen pre-pandemic. Overall, most road user types have shown a decrease in reported fatalities compared to 2022, although there are some groups with small numbers of fatalities where there is an increasing trend (buses or coaches and other vehicles). The notable exception to this is pedestrians where there is an observed an increase of 5% from 2022.

In 2023, 45% of fatalities were car occupants, 25% were pedestrians, 19% were motorcyclists and 5% were pedal cyclists. Of these 4 road user types, compared to 2022:

• the biggest percentage change was for motorcyclist fatalities, which showed a decline of 10%

• pedal cyclist fatalities showed a decline of 4%

• car occupant fatalities showed a decline of 8%

• pedestrian fatalities showed an increase of 5%

Chart 5: Reported road fatalities by road user type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 RAS0201

Table 4: Reported road fatalities by road user type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0201

Road user	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Car occupants	725	-8	-8
Pedestrians	405	5	2
Motorcyclists	315	-10	-5
Pedal cyclists	87	-4	-20
LGV occupants	38	-5	3
Other vehicle occupants	36	16	64
HGV occupants	14	-39	-33
Bus or coach occupants	4	33	-60

‘Other vehicle occupants’ include e-scooters, which account for much of the increase in casualties for this road user category compared to 2013 figures. An annual update on e-scooter casualties for 2023, which are not explicitly covered in this release, is available in our e-scooter factsheet.

Chart 6 and Table 5 show reported road collision fatalities in Great Britain per billion miles travelled for different road users over the past decade. For all road users except pedestrians, rates are calculated from billion vehicle miles travelled (Department for Transport’s Road Traffic Statistics). For pedestrians, rates are calculated from billion miles walked (Department for Transport’s National Travel Survey).

Compared to 2013, the fatality rates for pedal cyclists have continually fallen over the last decade (Chart 6). Over the same time period the fatality rates for motorcyclists and car occupants have shown little change. Pedestrian fatality rates declined during the COVID-19 pandemic and have subsequently remained substantially below pre-pandemic levels.

As shown in Table 5, of the 4 main road user types, comparing 2023 to 2022, fatality rates for car occupants and motorcyclists declined (by 11% and 10% respectively), while pedestrian and pedal cyclist fatality rates showed small increases of 2% and 3% respectively from 2022. Over all road user groups the biggest percentage change in fatalities per billion miles was for HGV occupants, which showed a decrease of 38%. It should be noted that number of HGV occupant fatalities is relatively low and therefore subject to a high level of year to year variability.

Chart 6: Reported road fatalities per billion miles travelled by road user type in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 (indexed: 2013 = 100) RAS0201

Table 5: Reported road fatalities per billion miles travelled by road user type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0201

Road user	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Motorcyclists	111	-10	-12
Pedestrians	27	2	-17
Pedal cyclists	24	3	-28
Car occupants	3	-11	-11
Bus or coach occupants	2	36	-41
HGV occupants	1	-38	-38
LGV occupants	1	-5	-23

5.3 All casualties and rates by road user type

Chart 7 and Table 6 show overall road casualties figures (including fatal, serious and slight injuries) for different road users over the past decade. This shows that in 2023, there were either decreases or little change in road casualty numbers across the majority of different road users, and that most road casualties were car occupants.

In 2023, 55% of casualties were car occupants, 14% were pedestrians, 13% were motorcyclists and 11% were pedal cyclists. Of these 4 road user types, compared to 2022:

• the biggest percentage change was for pedal cyclist casualties, which showed a decline of 4%

• there was also a slight decrease for car occupant casualties, but pedestrian and motorcyclist casualty numbers were similar to the previous years levels

Chart 7: Reported road casualties by road user type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 RAS0201

Table 6: Reported road casualties by road user type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0201

Road user	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Car occupants	72,826	-2	-34
Pedestrians	19,263	0	-20
Motorcyclists	16,978	0	-9
Pedal cyclists	14,999	-4	-23
LGV occupants	3,815	-4	-14
Bus or coach occupants	2,399	12	-51
Other vehicle occupants	2,038	-12	91
HGV occupants	659	-4	-49

‘Other vehicle occupants’ include e-scooters, which account for much of the increase in casualties for this road user category compared to 2013 figures. An annual update on e-scooter casualties for 2023, which are not explicitly covered in this release, is available in our e-scooter factsheet.

Chart 8 and Table 7 show overall reported road casualties in Great Britain per billion miles travelled for different road users over the past decade. Compared to 2013, road casualty rates have generally decreased over the past decade, but some recent increases have been observed for pedal cyclist and pedestrians (returning to pre-pandemic trends).

As shown in Table 7, of the 4 main road user types, comparing 2023 to 2022, the biggest percentage change in road casualties per billion miles was for car occupants, which showed a decrease of 5%. Casualty rates for pedestrians also showed a decline from 2022, while pedal cyclists showed a slight increase and motorcyclists showed little change.

Chart 8: Reported road casualties per billion miles travelled by road user type in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 (indexed: 2013 = 100) RAS0201

Table 7: Reported road casualties per billion miles travelled by road user type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0201

Road user	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Motorcyclists	5,956	0	-16
Pedal cyclists	4,152	3	-31
Pedestrians	1,291	-3	-35
Bus or coach occupants	1,250	14	-27
Car occupants	290	-5	-36
LGV occupants	66	-5	-36
HGV occupants	39	-1	-53

6. Casualties by age and sex

Chart 9 and Tables 8 and 9 shows road fatalities and all casualties (including fatal, serious and slight injuries) split by both sex and age group. This shows that generally road fatalities and casualties have decreased for both males and females over the last decade (although male numbers remain consistently higher). Larger decreases were observed in road fatality and casualty numbers during periods of COVID-19 lockdown (in 2020 and 2021), followed by a slight increase in 2022 in a return to pre-pandemic levels - this trend was particularly noticeable among those aged 70 and over. In 2023 a return to decreasing trends has occurred.

Overall, in 2023:

• 75% of fatalities and 61% of casualties of all severities were male
• 5% of fatalities and 10% of casualties were aged 16 years old and under
• 23% of fatalities and 29% of casualties were aged 17 to 29 years old
• 22% of fatalities and 8% of casualties were aged 70 years old and over

Chart 9: Reported road fatalities and all casualties by age group and sex in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 RAS0202

6.1 Fatalities by age and sex

Across all ages, male road fatality numbers show a slight decrease in 2023 to those observed in 2022, the exception to this being the 0 to 16 age group. Female road fatality numbers have overall remained largely the same, although there is some variability between age groups (Table 8). Compared to 2013, the majority of age groups show a decrease in road fatalities, but some increases were observed for those aged 50 to 69 and aged 70 and over, likely reflecting a growing elderly population over the past decade as well as more travel being conducted by people in these age groups. Additionally male fatalities aged 0 to 16 have increased compared to 2013.

In 2023, the age group with the most male fatalities was 30 to 49 year olds with 357 fatalities, which was a decline of 5% compared to 2022. For females the age group with the most fatalities in 2023 was 70 year olds and over with 148 fatalities, a decline of 3% compared to 2022.

Table 8: Reported road fatalities by age group and sex in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0202

Sex	Age group (years)	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Male	0 to 16	52	33	41
Male	17 to 29	307	-12	-25
Male	30 to 49	357	-5	-2
Male	50 to 69	277	-5	1
Male	70 and over	217	-9	17
Male	All ages	1,210	-6	-5
Female	0 to 16	23	28	-18
Female	17 to 29	73	-1	-34
Female	30 to 49	67	-24	-26
Female	50 to 69	103	20	47
Female	70 and over	148	-3	3
Female	All ages	414	-1	-6

6.2 All casualties by age and sex

Overall, both male and female casualty numbers in all age groups have decreased in 2023 compared to 2013. When considering trends across all ages, this percentage change reduction is greater for females compared to males with the greatest reduction observed in females aged 17 to 29 (Table 9). Comparing to 2022 most age groups show little change in both male and female casualty numbers.

In 2023, the age group with the most male casualties was 30 to 49 year olds with 26,768 casualties. For females the 30 to 49 year old age group also had the most casualties in 2023 with 16,230 casualties.

Table 9: Reported road casualties by age group and sex in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0202

Sex	Age group (years)	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Male	0 to 16	7,805	-2	-26
Male	17 to 29	24,256	-3	-32
Male	30 to 49	26,768	-3	-27
Male	50 to 69	15,458	-2	-14
Male	70 and over	5,015	-1	-9
Male	All ages	79,302	-2	-25
Female	0 to 16	5,327	0	-30
Female	17 to 29	12,969	-5	-45
Female	30 to 49	16,230	0	-31
Female	50 to 69	10,643	0	-22
Female	70 and over	4,768	2	-18
Female	All ages	49,937	-1	-33

7. Casualties by road type

In this report, urban roads are defined as those within an area of population of 10,000 or more in England and Wales or more than 3,000 in Scotland - roads outside of these areas are classified as rural (Department for Transport types of road definitions).

Chart 10 and Table 10 show road fatalities and all road casualties (including fatal, serious and slight injuries) for motorways, rural roads and urban roads.

In 2023, the majority of road fatalities occurred on rural roads, whereas the majority of all casualties occurred on urban roads. Although motorways account for 21% of road traffic, they account for a much smaller proportion of road fatalities (5%) and casualties (4%). By contrast, rural road fatalities (60%) are over represented compared to the proportion of rural road traffic (44%). Similarly, urban roads account for a much higher proportion of road casualties (63%) than their relative traffic level (35%).

Chart 10: Reported road casualties by severity and traffic proportion for different road types in Great Britain, 2023 RAS0302

Severity	Motorways	Rural roads	Urban roads	Total
Killed	5%	60%	35%	100%
All casualties	4%	33%	63%	100%
Traffic (billion vehicle miles)	21%	44%	35%	100%

Table 10: Reported road casualties by severity and road type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0302

Severity	Road type	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Killed	Motorways	84	-16	-16
Killed	Rural roads	969	-5	-9
Killed	Urban roads	571	-4	5
All casualties	Motorways	5,279	-1	-40
All casualties	Rural roads	44,241	0	-30
All casualties	Urban roads	83,452	-3	-25
Traffic (billion vehicle miles)	Motorways	70	2	10
Traffic (billion vehicle miles)	Rural roads	148	2	12
Traffic (billion vehicle miles)	Urban roads	116	2	2

7.1 Fatal rates by road type

Chart 11 and Table 11 show overall reported road fatalities in Great Britain per billion miles travelled for different road types over the past decade. Since 2013, road fatality rates for rural roads have generally decreased (with some fluctuations over the years). Motorway fatality rates are very small overall, but have shown a varied trend over the past decade, with decreases in the last 2 years. Fatality rates on urban roads have increased from 2013 levels, but have been declining single the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the greatest fatality rate was on rural roads with 7 people killed per billion miles travelled.

Chart 11: Reported road fatalities per billion miles travelled by road type in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 (indexed: 2013 = 100) RAS0302

Table 11: Reported road fatalities per billion miles travelled by road type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0302

Road type	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Motorways	1	-18	-24
Rural roads	7	-7	-19
Urban roads	5	-5	2

7.2 Casualty rates by road type

Chart 12 and Table 12 show overall reported road casualties in Great Britain per billion miles travelled for different road types over the past decade. Compared to 2013, road casualty rates have generally decreased for all road types, with the largest change seen in motorway casualty rates. In 2023, the greatest casualty rate was on urban roads with 719 casualties per billion miles travelled.

Chart 12: Reported road casualties per billion miles travelled by road type in Great Britain, 2013 to 2023 (indexed: 2013 = 100) RAS0302

Table 12: Reported road casualties per billion miles travelled by road type in Great Britain, 2023 compared with 2022 and 2013 RAS0302

Road type	2023	% change from 2022	% change from 2013
Motorways	76	-3	-45
Rural roads	298	-3	-38
Urban roads	719	-4	-27

8. International comparisions

Comparisons between countries are only possible for fatalities per million population, as casualties and traffic data are collected less consistently across different countries. Table RAS0404 compares figures for Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom as a whole with others in Europe. At present no figures are available for countries outside Europe.

Chart 13 shows an international comparison of road fatalities per million population. Figures for Great Britain have been among the lowest in the world for many years. In 2023, Great Britain ranked 3 out of 33 countries with available data for lowest number of road fatalities per million population. Northern Ireland ranked 13 out of 33 in 2023.

Further information about comparisons in road safety progress between countries is available in the European Transport Safety Council’s Performance Index (PIN) for European countries. Once data is available worldwide for 2023 it will be published by the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD).

Chart 13: Road fatalities per million population by country, 2023 RAS0404

Country	Road fatalities per million population
Norway	20
Sweden	22
Great Britain	25
Denmark	26
Switzerland	27
Malta	30
Finland	33
Germany	34
Irish Republic	35
Israel	37
Cyprus	37
Spain	37
Northern Ireland	37
Netherlands	38
Slovenia	39
Luxembourg	39
Belgium	41
Estonia	43
Austria	44
Czech Republic	46
France	48
Slovakia	50
Hungary	50
Poland	52
Italy	52
Lithuania	56
Greece	60
Portugal	60
Croatia	60
Latvia	75
Serbia	76
Romania	81
Bulgaria	82

9. Factors contributing to fatalities

Road collisions occur for a wide range of reasons, including those related to road user behaviour and the roads and vehicles involved. A single collision can be the result of several different factors, so reliably attributing the cause of collisions is difficult. An analysis giving further details was included in the 2019 annual report. However, statistics are available covering several key areas, including the following.

9.1 Road safety factors (RAS0701 to RAS0705)

STATS19 data provides some insight into why and how road collisions occur. When police officers attend the scene of a collision, they can select up to 6 factors they believe contributed to the collision (for vehicles and casualties involved). This does not assign blame for the collision to any specific road user, but gives an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the collision. More information is available in the DfT guide to contributory factors for reported road casualties.

The most recent STATS19 review recommended that contributory factors (CFs) be replaced with a new system of road safety factors (RSFs). These were designed to focus on recording factors related to areas where action can be taken to improve road safety, and to reduce the list of potential factors, with a new set of codes.

A small amount of data for 2023 has been collected directly as road safety factors while the majority has been collected using the contributory factor system. In order to begin analysing trends using the new system contributory factor data has been converted to road safety factors using a mapping table as detailed in the road safety factors initial analysis report.

Chart 14 shows the proportion of fatal collisions with at least one factor recorded that fall into each RSF section. A collision can be assigned multiple factors and therefore the numbers in Chart 14 may sum to more than 100%. The 3 sections with the largest number of collisions were:

1. Speed
2. Behaviour or inexperience
3. Distraction or impairment

Chart 14: Proportion of fatal collisions with RSFs assigned, by RSF section in Great Britain, 2023 RAS0701

Road Safety Factor section	2023 (%)
Speed	57.7
Behaviour or inexperience	46.8
Distraction or impairment	34.9
Road	12.3
Non-motorised road users	7.5
Vehicles	4.2
Not coded	3.9

Road safety factor data has been used to explore the factors contributing to fatal collisions in the fatal 4 factsheet.

9.2 Deprivation

The main measurement of deprivation for England is the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which is a measure of relative deprivation of lower layer super output areas (LSOAs). LSOAs are small areas roughly equivalent to postcode areas, each with a similar population size. IMD ranks the LSOAs in England from most deprived to least deprived, based on 7 different domains of deprivation (income deprivation, employment deprivation, education, skills and training deprivation, health deprivation and disability, crime, barriers to housing and services and living environment deprivation). More information about how IMD is calculated is available in the latest IMD statistics.

Road collision location and casualty home postcode are recorded by police forces for STATS19 road casualty data. This means that the IMD rank of the collision location and casualty home postcode can be added to the data and used for analysis.

Chart 15 shows the percent of road casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode for 2023. Generally, there are a higher proportion of road casualties in the more deprived areas. In 2023, the difference in casualties between the most deprived 10% and least deprived 10% IMD decide was 5.6 percentage points.

The relationship between reported road casualties and deprivation in England is explored further in our deprivation factsheet.

Chart 15: Percentage of total road casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, 2023 (England only)

IMD decile of casualty home postcode	2023 road casualties (%)
Most deprived 10%	12.3
More deprived 10% to 20%	12.7
More deprived 20% to 30%	12.0
More deprived 30% to 40%	11.3
More deprived 40% to 50%	10.4
Less deprived 40% to 50%	9.9
Less deprived 30% to 40%	8.7
Less deprived 20% to 30%	8.4
Less deprived 10% to 20%	7.7
Least deprived 10%	6.7

9.3 Seatbelt non-wearing (RAS0711)

STATS19 records details of whether vehicle occupant casualties were wearing seatbelts, though this information is only mandatory for fatalities. Seatbelt use is recorded by the reporting police officer based on the information available within a short time of the collision occurring, rather than a detailed investigation.

Chart 16 shows the proportion of car occupant fatalities not wearing a seatbelt in 2023 for different occupant types. In 2023 around a quarter of all car occupants were not wearing seatbelts, but this proportion was higher for male car occupant fatalities and occupants travelling in the evening and night (6pm to 8am).

Chart 16: Proportion of car occupant fatalities not wearing a seatbelt in Great Britain, 2023 RAS0711

Car occupant type	Fatalities not wearing a seatbelt (%)
All occupants	24.6
Female occupants	11.1
Male occupants	31.3
Occupants travelling in the daytime (8am to 6pm)	18.8
Occupants travelling in the evening and night (6pm to 8am)	37.5

9.4 Drink and drug driving (RAS20)

Statistics on drink-driving, based on data from STATS19 as well as coroner reports are published separately. The latest statistics available cover 2022, published in our report on road casualties in Great Britain, involving illegal alcohol levels. The department is also developing statistics on drug-driving. Currently an initial feasibility study has been produced, and it is hoped to develop this further.

10. Other topics

Alongside this publication, data tables are available providing statistics on other topics including.

Road type breakdowns (RAS03): Including urban and rural roads, and casualties on the strategic road network (SRN). More detailed statistics for SRN roads, including smart motorways, are published by National Highways for example in the smart motorway evidence stocktake reports.

Area comparisons (RAS04): Including police force, country, region and local authority breakdowns.

Vehicles and drivers involved (RAS05): Covering vehicles involved in collisions by type, manoeuvre and driver characteristics.

Value of prevention of collisions (RAS40): Covering estimates of preventing report and unreported collisions, derived from STATS19 collision and casualty numbers together with information on average costs from the Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) data book.

Besides the published tables, users can explore road casualty data in further detail or for specific areas via our interactive dashboard, data download tool and open dataset.

11. Background quality information

Detailed guidance on road casualty statistics is given on our guidance page. A full list of the definitions used in this publication can be found in our notes and definitions documentation.

11.1 Quality and methodology

Quality

Road casualty statistics have been assessed as Accredited Official Statistics, indicating compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Full details of the quality of these statistics are available in the background quality report.

There are several important areas which users of the statistics should be aware of which are listed below.

Final estimates

Figures in this release are considered as final estimates and will not usually be revised in future. They are based on complete data from all 42 police authorities in Great Britain (as at 1 September 2024) with no imputation required.

These figures update the provisional estimates published in May following further validation. This validation also impacts parameters used in the adjustment model for severity and therefore estimates for serious injuries, and to a lesser extent, slight injuries, have also changed marginally.

Note, however, that unexpected issues with data collection for 2 police forces - Avon and Somerset Police, and Staffordshire Police - mean the reliability and accuracy of the recorded road collisions in these 2 regions cannot be guaranteed as some collisions may have been misrecorded or not recorded at all. Estimates for these forces may be revised at a later date.

Under-reporting

Comparisons of road collision reports with death registrations show that very few, if any, road collision fatalities are not reported to the police. However, a considerable proportion of non-fatal casualties are not known to the police, as hospital, survey and compensation claims data all indicate a higher number of casualties than those recorded in police collision data. More information on the coherence of the police reported data with alternative sources can be found in our comparison to other sources of information on road casualties.

Changes in reporting systems used by police forces

From 2016 onwards, figures on the severity of injury have been affected by a large number of police forces changing their reporting systems. It is likely that the recording of injury severity is more accurate for forces using these new reporting systems.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Methodology Advisory Service have completed analysis to quantify the effect of the introduction of new injury based reporting systems on the number of slight and serious injuries reported to the police, and to estimate the level of slight and serious injuries as if all police forces were using injury-based reporting systems.

For more information, please see our guide to severity adjustments.

Online self-reporting

Online self-reporting is part of a wider project for digital public contact known as Single Online Home. It is funded by the Home Office to allow people involved in road traffic collisions to report the collision to the police online should they choose to do so, rather than having to physically report it at a police station.

The principle of online reporting is to make it easier for members of the public to report collisions. It is expected that the introduction of online reporting will affect the number of non-fatal (and particularly slight) casualties reported, and therefore impact the total for Great Britain, as the public will have more reporting options available to them. This is particularly likely to impact numbers for slight injuries, which may not have been reported otherwise.

See our analysis of the impact of online self reporting for more details.

11.2 User engagement, developments and STATS19 review

Details of users and uses of road casualty statistics and response to recent user feedback is available from our user engagement page.

The STATS19 system which provides the majority of statistics for this publication is periodically reviewed to keep up with changes in technology, to make improvements to completeness and accuracy, and to reduce the reporting burden. Key recommendations of the latest review, carried out in 2018, can be found in the full STATS19 review report.

11.3 About these statistics

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2009. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs. More information can be found on our national statistics status webpage.

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found in our pre-release access list.

12. Instructions for printing and saving

Depending on which browser you use and the type of device you use (such as a mobile or laptop) these instructions may vary.

You will find your print and save options in your browser’s menu. You may also have other options available on your device. Tablets and mobile device instructions will be specific to the make and model of the device.

13. How to search

Select Ctrl and F on a Windows laptop or Command and F on a Mac.

This will open a search box in the top right-hand corner of the page. Type the word you are looking for in the search bar and press enter.

Your browser will highlight the word, usually in yellow, wherever it appears on the page. Press enter to move to the next place it appears.

14. Contact details

Road safety statistics

Email roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk

To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter) at DfTstats.

1. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Accredited Official Statistics Policy – Office for Statistics Regulation ↩