The Safest Countries To Drive In

The World's

SAFEST ROADS

Which countries are the safest to drive in?

Road safety can depend on many different factors, from seat belts to road conditions and traffic related injuries.

Driving in the UK might seem safe, there were 1,624 fatalities on Great Britain's roads according to the latest Department for Transport's annual report for 2023.

One factor which might impact driving safety is where you live. Zutobi analysed countries across the world based on indicators including motorway speed limits, blood alcohol concentration limits for drivers and road traffic death rates, to determine the world’s safest and most dangerous countries to drive.

Changes since last year

The world’s safest countries for driving this year have seen little change from the previous year. For the fourth year in a row, Norway is the safest country in the world for driving, while runner-up Iceland ranked in last year’s top five safest countries. Japan rose into the top five countries with the safest roads, up to the third place compared to last year.

The most dangerous countries for driving have remained consistent since last year, with the three most dangerous seeing no change. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina saw its road traffic death rate increase by over 86%, from 7.35 to 13.7 per 100,000 people, while a number of countries saw their rates improve, particularly Malaysia (from 22.5 to 13.9 per 100,000 people).

The average number of estimated road traffic deaths per 100,000 across all countries has decreased since the previous year from 8.9 to 6.3, while there has been no change in national speed limits and blood alcohol concentration limits in each country.

If you want to read last year’s report you can download it here: The World's Safest Roads 2023, The World's Safest Roads 2022, The World's Safest Roads 2021

The World’s Safest

Countries to Drive

Norway

Iceland

Japan

The World’s Most Dangerous

Countries to Drive

South Africa

Thailand

United States

The World ’s

Safest & Most Dangerous Roads

KeyRankCountryEstimated road traffic death rate (per 100,000 population)Maximum motorway speed limit (kph)Seat-belt wearing rate (front seat)Road traffic deaths attributed to alcoholBlood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit for drivers (g/dl)Overall Safety Driving Score /1


1	Norway	1.5	110	97.8	13	0.02	8.23 -
2	Hungary	7.4	130	95	7.1	0	7.78
3	Iceland	2.4	90	93	14	0.05	7.96
4	Japan	2.7	120	98	5.6	0.03	7.86
5	Estonia	4.4	120	97.3	10	0.02	7.80
6	Sweden	2.1	120	97.6	24	0.02	7.54
7	Moldova	9.1	90	61.8	9.4	0.03	7.46
8	Czechia	5.2	130	98	9.5	0.03	7.25
9	Israel	4.2	120	88.7	3.6	0.05	7.18
10	Albania	10.8	110	85	5.2	0.05	6.86
11	Switzerland	2.4	120	96	13	0.05	7.16
12	Armenia	13.6	90	70	1.9	0.04	7.29
13	Spain	3.5	120	90.5	11.9	0.05	7.01
14	Lithuania	6.3	130	97	9.6	0.04	6.92
15	Poland	6.5	140	97	12.7	0.02	6.96
16	Austria	4.6	130	95	5.1	0.05	6.93
17	Latvia	9.8	120	84.7	10.8	0.05	6.46
18	New Zealand	6.6	110	97	27	0.05	6.72
19	Republic of Korea	6.9	120	83	11.2	0.05	6.63
20	Georgia	12.7	110	60	9	0.03	6.58
21	Germany	3.3	None	98.1	7	0.05	6.70
22	Canada	4.7	120	95.2	29.6	0.04	6.67
23	Finland	4.2	120	95	24	0.05	6.66
24	Netherlands	3.4	130	96.6	17.5	0.05	6.66
25	United Kingdom	2.4	112	94.6	13	0.08	6.69
26	Morocco	18.6	120	63.2	3.7	0.02	6.29
27	Australia	4.5	130	97	17	0.05	6.60
28	Luxembourg	3.9	130	90	14	0.05	6.61
29	Mauritius	9.7	110	97.4	23.6	0.05	6.60
30	Serbia	7.4	130	75.1	17	0.03	6.42
31	Portugal	7.2	120	96	29.2	0.05	6.29
32	Chile	10.3	120	59	13	0.03	6.32
33	Cuba	5.4	100	30	33.3	0.01	6.55
34	Ireland	2.8	120	96	38.5	0.05	6.33
35	France	4.7	130	99.4	29	0.05	6.25
36	Russian Federation	10.6	130	74.5	22.9	0.03	5.98
37	Slovenia	5.8	130	94.8	32	0.05	5.99
38	Costa Rica	15.5	100	75.1	31.2	0.05	5.80
39	Ecuador	23.4	100	26	6.8	0.03	5.50
40	Bosnia and Herzegovina	13.7	130	51	20.8	0.03	5.37
41	Greece	7.3	130	74	25.3	0.05	5.70
42	Italy	5	130	62.7	22.5	0.05	5.74
43	Guyana	15.2	100	95	17	0.08	5.97
44	Bolivia	17.6	80	3.5	6.4	0.05	5.66
45	Peru	12.7	100	15.8	9.3	0.05	5.58
46	Turkey	6.5	140	40.6	3.3	0.05	5.52
47	Croatia	8.1	130	61.9	23.8	0.05	5.46
48	Malaysia	13.9	110	73.8	0.1	0.08	5.90
49	India	14.6	120	7.3	4.1	0.03	5.30
50	Argentina	8.8	130	40.8	17	0.05	5.22
51	United States	14.2	137	90.4	29	0.08	4.49
52	Thailand	25.4	120	40	14.1	0.05	4.34 -
53	South Africa	24.5	120	31	57.5	0.05	2.88

VIEW ALL

The Country With The Highest...

Road traffic death rate:

THAILAND

25.4 per 100,000 population

Thailand has the highest amount of road traffic related deaths per 100,000 people out of all the countries we looked at. There are an estimated 25.4 road traffic deaths per 100,000 of the population.

Motorway speed limit:

GERMANY

None

Germany is the only country in our study that does not impose a motorway speed limit for cars. The recommended speed limit on the Autobahn is 130km/h, however this is often ignored by drivers.

Seat-belt wearing rate:

FRANCE

99.4%

France is estimated to have the highest rate of front seat-belt usage in the world, at 99.4%.

Rate of alcohol related road traffic deaths:

SOUTH AFRICA

57.5%

The risk of a drink driving related fatality is highest in South Africa. South Africa has the highest amount of alcohol related road traffic deaths, at 57.5%.

Blood alcohol concentration limit for drivers:

MALAYSIA,

UNITED KINGDOM,

GUYANA,

UNITED STATES

0.08% g/dl

The UK, USA, Malaysia and Guyana are the countries most relaxed in their legal BAC limit for drivers. These countries permit drivers to have a BAC level of 0.08%.

The Country With The Lowest...

Road traffic death rate:

NORWAY

1.5 per 100,000 population

Norway has the least amount of road traffic related deaths per 100,000 people. There are an estimated 1.5 road traffic deaths per 100,000 and the number has decreased by 1.35% since last year's data.

Motorway speed limit:

BOLIVIA

80 km/h

Ranking 11th overall, Bolivia is the country with the lowest maximum motorway speed limit for cars. The national speed limit is 80km/h.

Seat-belt wearing rate:

BOLIVIA

3.5%

Bolivia is estimated to have the lowest rate of front seat-belt usage in the world, at just 3.5%. There is no national law requiring the use of seat-belts in the country and very few people report wearing one.

Rate of alcohol related road traffic deaths:

MALAYSIA

0.1%

Malaysia has the lowest amount of alcohol related road traffic deaths, at just 0.1%. While the majority of Malaysia’s population is Muslim, the sale of alcohol to non-Muslims is permitted, and the BAC limit for drivers is 0.08%.

Blood alcohol concentration limit for drivers:

HUNGARY,

CUBA

0% g/dl

Czechia, France, Germany and Japan are estimated to have the highest rate of front seat-belt usage in the world, at 98%.

Methodology

Each country was analysed based on the following five factors. Each country was given a normalised score out of ten for each factor, and an average score was calculated across all five factors.

Estimated road traffic
death rate

The estimated number of road traffic deaths per 100,000 population, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data repository and OECD.

Maximum motorway
speed limit

The maximum speed limit for cars on motorways in kilometres per hour was sourced from Wikipedia.

Seat-belt
wearing rate

An estimate of the percentage of car occupants across both sexes who use a seat belt while traveling in the front of a vehicle was taken from the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data repository, UK Department of Transport and European Road Safety Observatory.

Road traffic deaths attributed to alcohol

An estimate of the proportion of road traffic deaths which have been attributed to alcohol (over the national legal limit), according to the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data repository.

BAC limit for drivers

The national maximum legal Blood Alcohol Concentration level for the general population (limits for young/novice drivers and professional/commercial drivers may be higher), according to the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data repository.