The Ledger · Entry 38
Are fewer people dying on the roads?
Yes. Road accident deaths per billion passenger kilometers traveled by road, United Kingdom was 21.8 in 1970. By 2021 it was 2.8. Data retrieved 2026-08-22.
The UK's roads have become far safer since 1970
This series counts deaths from road accidents in Britain for every billion kilometers people travel by road, which measures how dangerous a given amount of driving is rather than just counting deaths as population and traffic grow. In 1970 that rate stood at 21.8 deaths per billion passenger kilometers. Seatbelt laws, crumple zones, drink-driving enforcement, and better roads brought it down for decades.
The key rows
This is a single-country series, not a worldwide count. The UK is one of the few places with road-safety records reaching back to 1970, while OECD's comparable data for most other countries only starts in the 1990s. The rate reached its lowest point in the data, 2.3, in 2019, then rose to 2.9 in 2020 and 2.8 in 2021 as the pandemic changed how much people drove. Even with that uptick, travel by road in Britain remained roughly eight times safer per kilometer than it was in 1970.
Asked often
Has road travel in Britain become safer?
Yes, sharply. The death rate per billion passenger kilometers traveled by road fell from 21.8 in 1970 to 2.8 in 2021. It reached its lowest recorded point, 2.3, in 2019, before ticking up slightly during the pandemic years.
Is this a global figure?
No. This series covers the United Kingdom only, one of the few countries with a road-safety record reaching back to 1970. Comparable OECD data for most other countries only begins in the 1990s, so the UK stands in for the pattern rather than representing the whole world.
The world also got better today.
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