CHAPTER 3
Data from the United Nations and the World Bank shows that the region with the highest traffic mortality by far is Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by the Middle East and North Africa, with the latter showing recent improvements.
The regions with the lowest mortality are North America, Europe and Central Asia and East Asia and Pacific, which are also the regions with the highest-quality roads.
Figure 10: Mortality caused by road traffic injury per 100,000 population
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25
20
15
10
5
0
East Asia and Pacific Latin America and the Caribbean
North America Sub-Saharan Africa
Europe and Central Asia Middle East and North Africa
South Asia
Source: World Bank Prosperity 360 database
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 12 road traffic crashes result in the deaths of approximately 1.19 million people around the world each year and leave between 20 and 50 million people with non-fatal injuries. More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among vulner- able road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motor- cyclists. Two-thirds of road traffic fatalities occur among people of working age (18–59 years) and road traffic inju- ries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29. In addition to the human suffering caused by road traffic injuries, they also incur a heavy economic burden on victims and their families, both through treatment costs for the injured and through loss of productivity of those killed or disabled. More broadly, road traffic injuries have a serious impact on national economies, costing countries globally an estimated 3 percent of their annual gross domestic product (GDP). 13 Recognizing the heavy burden that road accidents place on developing countries, the SDGs dedicate an entire SDG target to halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents (SDG target 3.6).
Road accidents are a significant global public safety and economic concern, and the condition and design of roads play a crucial role in influencing the frequency and severity of accidents. Since bad road conditions, inade- quate signage and poorly designed roads are often major contributing factors to road traffic collisions, improving road infrastructure while taking into account road safety standards can significantly reduce accidents. As important funders of road infrastructure in developing countries, multilateral development banks (MDBs) have long emphasized the importance of road safety consider- ations when financing new or rehabilitating existing trans- port infrastructure. A 2024 review by the MDB Road Safety Working Group reports that its members 14 committed US$3.6 billion to road safety funding between 2018 and 2022. 15
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