Greece ranks fourth from the bottom in the European Union in terms of road safety, according to the 18th Annual Road Safety Performance Index Report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), having recorded 73 road deaths per million inhabitants in 2024 — well above the EU average of 45.
Although the report highlights that Greece has made progress in reducing serious injuries (down 46% between 2014 and 2024), the country remains far from achieving the necessary reduction in fatal road accidents.
“In general, we’ve seen an improvement of just 3%, while other countries have improved by 13%. The entire EU needed to reach a 27% reduction to meet the goal of cutting traffic deaths in half by 2030. So it’s clear that Europe is not on track — and we’re doing worse than most,” commented transportation expert Yiorgos Yannis to Kathimerini.
Norway and Sweden topped the safety rankings, while Serbia and Romania had the highest mortality rates, with 78 and 77 deaths per million inhabitants, respectively.
The main negative finding for Greece is that it has shown only minor overall improvement in key areas — such as accident rates, speeding, and injury prevention — since 2021.
At the same time, the rate of recorded serious injuries remains very low — with data showing fewer than one serious injury per road fatality — suggesting potential shortcomings in data collection by the Greek police, especially regarding pedestrians, cyclists, and minor accidents.
Norway, a global leader in road safety, has adopted the “Vision Zero” policy, which aims to eliminate road fatalities entirely. It does so through a combination of strict police enforcement, widespread use of automatic speed cameras, and tough penalties for drunk driving.
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