site.btaBalkan Countries Struggle with High Road Fatality Rates, Bulgaria Third in 2024

The Balkan countries struggled with high rates of traffic-related deaths in 2024, shows a check by BTA based on statistics from Bulgaria and its neighboring countries. Bulgaria had the highest road fatality rate after Romania's 76 deaths per 1 million population and Serbia's 75 deaths.

According to a report by the National Police, there were 7,173 road accidents in Bulgaria last year, which took the lives of 478 people and left 9,054 injured (1,888 seriously injured and 7,166 slightly injured). A simple calculation shows that with a population of around 6.44 million people, this equates to 74 deaths per 1 million population in crashes on Bulgarian roads. 

According to Romanian police data for 2024, there were 3,862 serious road accidents in that country that left 1,333 people dead and 2,980 seriously injured. This means a fatality rate of 76 per 1 million population (with monthly averages based on the statistics presented).

On the roads of Serbia, last year saw 31,922 road traffic accidents that left 501 dead, i.e. 75 deaths per 1 million (with a population of 6.65 million).

In the Republic of North Macedonia, 142 people died in a total of 8,457 road accidents last year, i.e. 68 people per 1 million population.

In Greece, there were 654 road fatalities, equivalent to 61 people per million, and in Turkiye the road traffic victims numbered 2,713, or 32 per 1 million population, according to data released by the national police services of those countries.