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These are the safest (and most dangerous) countries for driving in Europe

Planning a road trip? You might want to have a look at these stats

Liv Kelly
Written by
Liv Kelly
Contributing Writer
Transfăgărășan Highway, Romania
Photograph: Shutterstock
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Road trips are a brilliant way to see Europe – your itinerary isn’t ruled by train or bus timetables and you can head pretty much anywhere you want. But some places are safer than others when it comes to the roads, be it down to the quality of the infrastructure or the recklessness of other drivers, and a new study by Vignetteswitzerland.com sheds some light on which countries are the safest (and the most dangerous). 

The study analysed data from the European Transport Safety Council to find out which countries have the highest road deaths per million inhabitants. The safest country to drive in Europe? Unsurprisingly, it’s Norway. Data from 2022 shows that the country had only 21.38 deaths per million people.

So where in Europe is the most dangerous for drivers? It’s Romania, which has a much higher 85.81 deaths per million inhabitants. Serbia follows closely behind with 82.65 deaths, and Bulgaria comes in third with 77.64. 

These are the safest European countries to drive in

  1. Norway
  2. Sweden
  3. United Kingdom
  4. Denmark
  5. Switzerland

And these are the most dangerous

  1. Romania
  2. Serbia
  3. Bulgaria
  4. Croatia
  5. Portugal

So now you know the safest countries to head out on the road. Why not wise up on some of Europe’s most confusing road signs, while you’re here? And if you don’t fancy travelling by road, there’s cracking train journeys in Europe too. 

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