Portugal was the sixth country in the European Union (EU) with the most deaths on the roads in 2022, recording 60 deaths per million inhabitants, thus surpassing the average mortality rate in the EU of 46 deaths per million inhabitants.
The data revealed by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), and disclosed this week, are included in the special road safety report showing an average of deaths from road accidents in Spain below 40 deaths per million inhabitants, placing the neighboring country in seventh place in the EU ranking in 2022.
Sweden, according to the table, is the country with the fewest deaths per million inhabitants in the Member States, recording 20 deaths per million inhabitants in 2022, followed by Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Finland, and Estonia, all with less than 40 deaths per million inhabitants.
At the bottom of the table is Romania, which was the EU country with the most deaths due to road accidents in 2022, exceeding 80 deaths per million inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Latvia, and, in sixth place, Portugal.
Despite the high accident rate in 2022, Portugal reduced the number of deaths compared to 2010, a year in which it recorded over 90 deaths per million inhabitants, highlighted the ECA in the report.
As for the age of the vehicles circulating on the roads of the EU, the report – based on data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) from 2021 – places Portugal in the middle of the table, alongside Spain, with an average vehicle age of 13.5 years, but almost double the average age (7.6 years) of vehicles in Luxembourg, the youngest in the EU.
Greece, with an average vehicle age of 17 years, and Estonia, with 16.8 years, were in 2022 the EU countries with the oldest cars in circulation, about five years older than the EU average age of 12 years.
As the main conclusion of the report, the ECA highlights that the EU and EU countries “must make more efforts”, otherwise they will not be able to achieve the goal of reducing the number of road accident deaths by half by 2030 compared to the 2019 value, when 22,800 people died on EU roads.
The ECA also recommends to the European Commission to encourage Member States to conduct detailed investigations into the causes of accidents, especially at critical points, and to promote the development of harmonized reports in this regard, a measure to be implemented by 2026.
