Greece has the third highest share of motorcycle fatalities among the EU Member States, according to the latest report based on 2018 figures published by Eurostat.
According to the data, in 2018, 27.1% of all road accident fatalities in Greece occurred among motorcyclists, with Cyprus in second place at 28.6% and Malta first at 44.4% of motorcyclists among the road fatalities.
The remaining ‘two-wheeled’ category —mopeds — accounted for 7.1% of all road accident fatalities in Portugal (2017 data), a much larger share than the next highest countries (Denmark with 5.8%, the Netherlands with 5.2%).
Overall where cycling is widespread, such as the Netherlands or Denmark, it comes as no surprise that cyclists account for a larger share of fatalities than in countries where cycling is less common. Cyclists accounted for 20.4% of all road accident deaths in the Netherlands in 2018, followed by Denmark with 16.4%. At the other end of the scale, cyclists accounted for just 1.7% of the road accident deaths in Greece.
In 2018, 23,339 people died in road accidents in the EU, 45% being passenger car occupants, 21% pedestrians, 15% motorcycles, 8% bicycles and 12% other categories (including light and heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, mopeds and other vehicles).
There has been a downward trend over the last 10 years in the number of road traffic victims in the EU. Compared with 2008, the number of road fatalities has fallen by more than 13,000 persons (-37%), from almost 37,000 to less than 24,000 in 2018.
Compared with the population of each Member State, the lowest rates of road fatalities in 2018 were observed in Ireland (29 road traffic victims per million inhabitants), Denmark (30), Sweden (32) and the Netherlands (35), ahead of Malta (38), Spain (39) and Germany (40).
At the opposite end of the scale, the highest rates were recorded in Romania (96 road traffic victims per million inhabitants), Bulgaria (87), Croatia and Latvia (both 77) and Poland (75).
