Where Road Deaths Are Rising

In most of the world road death rates are falling — but not everywhere. Ranked by percentage increase in the death rate across two decades of World Bank data, these are the countries where rapid motorization, growing motorcycle fleets and lagging enforcement are outrunning safety improvements.

#	Country	Change since 2000	Rate /100k	Est. deaths / year	Est. 2026 so far
1	Guatemala	+257%	16.6	3,005	2,340
2	Paraguay	+119.5%	22.7	1,566	1,219
3	Saudi Arabia	+94%	13.2	4,871	3,793
4	South Sudan	+83.7%	33.9	3,763	2,930
5	Dominican Republic	+67.2%	64.6	7,300	5,685
6	Namibia	+49.1%	28.6	744	579
7	Ecuador	+43.4%	19.5	3,530	2,749
8	Bolivia	+39.6%	15.9	1,972	1,535
9	Zimbabwe	+33.4%	34.7	5,795	4,513
10	Venezuela	+31.7%	27.5	7,920	6,168
11	Yemen	+29.4%	19.4	6,674	5,197
12	Lesotho	+29.2%	28.9	665	517
13	Bangladesh	+27.8%	15.3	26,194	20,400
14	Laos	+27.5%	16.7	1,269	988
15	Argentina	+26.7%	14	6,524	5,081
16	Equatorial Guinea	+25.6%	24.1	410	319
17	Vietnam	+20.7%	17.7	17,505	13,633
18	Uzbekistan	+20.4%	10.5	3,696	2,878
19	Iraq	+20.3%	12.6	5,733	4,464
20	Philippines	+20.2%	11.1	13,020	10,140
21	Sri Lanka	+18.5%	12.5	2,738	2,132
22	Burundi	+17.6%	24.9	3,287	2,559
23	Eritrea	+16.9%	25.3	936	728
24	Mongolia	+16.5%	16.5	561	436
25	Chad	+14.9%	28.5	5,216	4,062
26	Central African Republic	+13.8%	33.6	1,915	1,491
27	Gambia	+13.4%	27.1	732	570
28	Ethiopia	+12.2%	26.7	33,776	26,305
29	Congo	+11.7%	27.4	1,671	1,301
30	Burkina Faso	+11%	28.2	6,571	5,117
31	Eswatini	+10.9%	26.9	323	251
32	Madagascar	+9.4%	23.6	7,151	5,569
33	Cameroon	+8.7%	29.4	8,408	6,548
34	Liberia	+7.7%	26.9	1,453	1,131
35	Turkey	+7.5%	8.6	7,379	5,746
36	Cambodia	+7.1%	17.1	2,890	2,250
37	North Korea	+6.8%	19.1	5,004	3,897
38	Jamaica	+6.2%	17.1	479	373
39	Kenya	+5.8%	28.2	15,538	12,101
40	Nepal	+5.6%	15.9	4,913	3,826
41	Gabon	+5%	22.9	550	428
42	Guinea-Bissau	+5%	27.5	605	471
43	Sudan	+4.5%	25.7	12,362	9,627
44	Nicaragua	+3.5%	18.3	1,281	997
45	Honduras	+3.4%	16.9	1,791	1,394
46	Malawi	+2.6%	31	6,479	5,045
47	Angola	+2.5%	26.1	9,579	7,460
48	Kyrgyzstan	+1.9%	13.8	925	720
49	Somalia	+1.9%	27.1	4,905	3,820
50	Sierra Leone	+1.8%	29.9	2,631	2,049

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Questions

FAQ

Where are road deaths increasing?

Mostly in rapidly motorizing countries where vehicle and motorcycle fleets are growing far faster than road infrastructure, enforcement and trauma care — concentrated in parts of Africa, South Asia and Latin America. The table above ranks the largest increases since 2000.

Can rising road deaths be reversed?

Yes — every country now at the top of the safety rankings once had rising deaths. The reversal formula is consistent: motorcycle helmet enforcement, speed management, drink-driving enforcement, safer road engineering and emergency response. Countries like Spain and South Korea cut their rates by more than half within two decades.

All figures are statistical estimates from WHO published rates — see the full methodology. Citing this table? Link back to this page as the source.