The Safest Countries to Drive a Car

In a research paper entitled “Mortality From Road Crashes in 193 Countries: A Comparison With Other Leading Causes of Death,” the institute concluded:

For the world, there were 844 fatalities from all causes per 100,000 population. The highest rate by country (1,717 in Chad) was 12 times the lowest rate (141 in Qatar). The rate in the United States was 817. The 10 countries with the highest rates were Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic, Ukraine, Malawi, Afghanistan, Dem. Rep. of the Congo, Somalia, Lesotho, and Mozambique. The 10 countries with the lowest rates were Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Oman, Syria, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and Costa Rica. The countries with the highest rates tended to cluster in two regions: central Africa, and several of the countries of the former Soviet Union and some adjacent countries. The countries with the lowest rates tended to cluster in Central America and the northern part of South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

The worldwide average was 844, which puts the United States in the middle with nations such as India, France, Germany and Argentina. Among other large nations where it is relatively safe to drive are Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Singapore. All in all, nations in Latin America did particularly well.

Methodology: Estimated fatalities from road crashes, malignant neoplasm, ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease for 193 countries were obtained from WHO (2014). The data were for 2008. Two sets of variables were analyzed: fatality rates per population from each of the four causes of deaths, and fatalities from road crashes as a percentage of fatalities from
each of the other three causes of death.