Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties in Great Britain, provisional estimates: year ending June 2024 

Published 28 November 2024

1. About this release

This release provides an estimate of the number of personal injury road traffic casualties in Great Britain that were reported by the police in the year ending June 2024 using the STATS19 reporting system. These figures are provisional as they will change following the end of year validation process.
Data by road user type, police force and road class (November 2024 first release) are available in the accompanying data tables.

2. Headline figures

Chart 1 shows the trend in killed or seriously injured (KSI) road casualties over the last decade. Since 2014, there has been a general downward trend in the number of KSI casualties in Great Britain with a notably decrease in the years affected by COVID-19. In the year ending June 2024, road casualties showed signs of a continued return to pre-pandemic trends.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in the year ending June 2024 there were an estimated:

• 1,607 fatalities, a decline of 2% compared to the year ending June 2023

• 29,540 killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties, little change compared to the year ending June 2023

• 128,920 casualties of all severities, a decline of 4% compared to the year ending June 2023

Of the road user groups with the most casualties the statistics show that in Great Britain the year ending June 2024, compared to the year ending June 2023 the biggest estimated percentage change for fatalities was pedal cyclists, which showed a decline of 5%. Pedal cyclists also had the biggest estimated percentage change for all casualties, showing a decline of 6%

Considering demographics, 75% of fatalities and 61% of casualties of all severities were male in Great Britain the year ending June 2024.

Chart 1: Reported road KSI (adjusted) casualties, Great Britain, the year ending June 2014 to the year ending June 2024 (provisional)

3. Things you need to know

3.1 Provisional figures

Figures in this release are provisional and are based on data supplied by police forces by November 2024. A small amount of missing data has been estimated. Figures will change following updates from the police and the end of year validation process. Further details are given in the background information section.

3.2 Severity adjustment

The figures in this release for injured casualties are based on adjusting figures reported by the police to take account of changes in the reporting of injury severity by some police forces in recent years. These adjusted figures can reliably be used to compare trends over time across the country. More details can be found in our severity adjustments guidance.

3.3 Data coverage

There is no obligation for people to report all personal injury collisions to the police. These figures, therefore, do not represent the full range of all collisions or casualties in Great Britain. All collisions reported by the police and that occurred on a public highway involving at least one motor vehicle, horse rider or pedal cyclist, and where at least one person was injured, are included in these statistics. More information on STATS19, how road traffic casualty data is collected and how these figures are produced can be found in the accompanying guidance.

4. Overall casualties

4.1 Casualties by severity

Casualties are broken down into fatalities (people killed in road collisions), and those injured (further split into seriously and slightly injured based on type of injury sustained). Killed and seriously injured casualties are commonly grouped together as ‘KSIs’.

It has long been known that non-fatal (and particularly slight) casualties are under-reported to the police, though we believe that the trends shown are likely to reflect genuine changes. Further information is available in the quality section below.

Chart 2 and Table 1 show the trend in road casualties by severity over the last decade. Trends in road casualties are affected by a wide range of factors, with 2020 and 2021 being impacted by COVID-19. In the decade prior to the pandemic in 2020, fatalities had been generally stable. Figures for the year ending June 2024 broadly shows a return to pre-pandemic trends.

Casualty counts are also impacted by traffic levels with casualty trends following a broadly similar pattern to motor traffic (in terms of billion vehicle miles) during periods of national COVID-19 lockdown. Trends in casualty rates are further explored in the next section. In the year ending June 2024, there were 337 billion vehicle miles travelled, an increase of 2% compared to the year ending June 2023.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in the year ending June 2024 there were an estimated:

• 1,607 fatalities, a decline of 2% compared to the year ending June 2023

• 29,540 KSI casualties, little change compared to the year ending June 2023

• 128,920 casualties of all severities, a decline of 4% compared to the year ending June 2023

Chart 2: Reported road casualties by severity and all road traffic (billion vehicles miles), Great Britain, the year ending June 2014 to the year ending June 2024 (provisional)

Table 1: Reported road casualties by severity, Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 and the year ending June 2014 RAS90

Severity	2024	% change from 2023	% change from 2014
Killed	1,607	-2	-8
Seriously injured (adjusted)	27,933	0	-14
KSI (adjusted)	29,540	0	-14
Slightly injured (adjusted)	99,380	-5	-38
All casualties	128,920	-4	-33
Traffic (billion vehicle miles)	337	2	7

4.2 Trends in casualty rates

Chart 3 and Table 2 show the trend in road casualty rates over the last decade. The patterns in casualty numbers shown above largely reflect changes in traffic patterns, therefore overall casualty rates have remained broadly stable over recent years. This indicates that the reductions in casualties have been associated with reductions in traffic, largely during periods of COVID-19 lockdown. Over the past decade, casualty rates in general fell steadily prior to 2020, with larger reductions in injured casualties than fatalities. This was a period where vehicle traffic increased steadily.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in the year ending June 2024, there were an estimated:

• 5 fatalities per billion vehicle miles travelled, a decline of 3% compared to the year ending June 2023

• 88 KSI casualties per billion vehicle miles travelled, a decline of 2% compared to the year ending June 2023

• 383 casualties of all severities per billion vehicle miles travelled, a decline of 6% compared to the year ending June 2023

Although, there was a decrease in the year ending June 2023 to the year ending June 2024, the figures for the year ending June 2024 show a continuation of the general slight decline in casualty rates over the last decade

Chart 3: Reported road casualty rates per billion vehicle miles by severity, Great Britain, the year ending June 2014 to the year ending June 2024 (provisional)

Table 2: Reported road casualty rates per billion vehicle miles by severity, Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared to the year ending June 2023 and the year ending June 2014

Severity	2024	% change from 2023	% change from 2014
Fatalities per billion vehicle miles	5	-3	-14
KSIs per billion vehicle miles	88	-2	-20
Casualties per billion vehicle miles	383	-6	-38

5. Casualties by road user type

The 4 main road user types (car occupants, pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists) are used in the charts below to show comparisons with the year ending June 2023.

While provisional statistics for the 4 main road user types are likely to give a reasonable indication of trends, figures for other road user types can be impacted by classification issues, as explained in the quality section below. Therefore, these figures should be interpreted with caution.

‘Other vehicle occupants’ include e-scooters, which account for much of the increase in casualties for this road user category compared to 2019 figures.

Provisionally, there were an estimated 1,194 casualties in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 1,413 in the year ending June 2023. There were 6 killed in collisions involving e-scooters (6 of whom were e-scooter riders) compared to 7 in the year ending June 2023. Our best estimate, after adjusting for changes in reporting by police, is that there were 381 seriously injured and 807 slightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters, this compares to 407 and 999 respectively in the year ending June 2023.

5.1 Fatalities by road user type

Chart 4 and Table 3 shows fatalities for the year ending June 2024 for the 4 main road user types: car occupants, pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists.

In the year ending June 2024:

• 45% of fatalities were car occupants

• 24% were pedestrians

• 20% were motorcyclists
• 5% were pedal cyclists.

Of these 4 road user types, compared to the year ending June 2023 the biggest percentage change was for pedal cyclist fatalities, which showed a decline of 5%.

Chart 4: Reported road fatalities by road user type, Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 RAS90

Table 3: Reported road fatalities by road user type, Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 and the year ending June 2014 RAS90

Road User Type	2024	% change from 2023	% change from 2014
Car occupants	727	-1	-8
Pedestrians	392	0	-6
Motorcyclists	319	-2	-8
Pedal cyclists	83	-5	-27
Goods vehicles occupants	52	-12	11
Other vehicle occupants	31	7	55
Bus or coach occupants	3	0	-70

5.2 All casualties by road user type

Chart 5 and Table 4 shows overall casualties figures split into the 4 main road user types: car occupants, pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists.

In the year ending June 2024, 55% of casualties were car occupants, 15% were pedestrians, 13% were motorcyclists and 11% were pedal cyclists. Of these 4 road user types, compared to the year ending June 2023:

• the biggest percentage change was for pedal cyclists, which showed a decline of 6%

• there was also a decrease for car occupants and motorcyclists casualties, but pedestrians casualty numbers were broadly unchanged

Chart 5: Reported road casualties by road user type, Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 RAS90

Table 4: Reported road casualties by road user type, Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 and the year ending June 2014 RAS90

Road User Type	2024	% change from 2023	% change from 2014
Car occupants	70,597	-4	-39
Pedestrians	19,092	-1	-24
Motorcyclists	16,407	-3	-18
Pedal cyclists	14,345	-6	-33
Goods vehicles occupants	4,282	-10	-31
Bus or coach occupants	2,191	-8	-58
Other vehicle occupants	2,005	-3	92

6. Casualties by age and sex

Chart 6 shows fatalities and all casualties split by both sex and age group.

Overall, in the year ending June 2024:

• 75% of fatalities and 61% of casualties of all severities were male
• 4% of fatalities and 10% of casualties were aged 16 years old and under
• 24% of fatalities and 28% of casualties were aged 17 to 29 years old
• 22% of fatalities and 8% of casualties were aged 70 years old and over

Chart 6: Reported road fatalities and all casualties by age group and sex, Great Britain, the year ending June 2014 to the year ending June 2024 (provisional)

6.1 Fatalities by age and sex

Overall, 75% of fatalities were male in the year ending June 2024.

In the year ending June 2024, the age group with the most male fatalities was 30 to 49 year olds with 332 fatalities, a decline of 8% compared to the year ending June 2023. For females the age group with the most fatalities in the year ending June 2024 was 70 year olds and over with 136 fatalities, a decline of 7% compared to the year ending June 2023.

The largest reductions are seen in males in the 0 to 16 and in females in the 30 to 49 age groups when compared to the year ending June 2023 and in males in 17 to 29 and females in the 0 to 16 age groups when compared to the year ending June 2014.

As the numbers in each group are small, there can be large fluctuations when comparing between years, as shown in Chart 6 and Table 5.

Table 5: Reported road fatalities by age group and sex in Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 and the year ending June 2014

Sex	Age group (years)	2024	% change from 2023	% change from 2014
Male	0 to 16	41	-21	24
Male	17 to 29	302	2	-26
Male	30 to 49	332	-8	-15
Male	50 to 69	313	7	11
Male	70 and over	216	-9	17
Male	All ages	1,204	-3	-7
Female	0 to 16	23	21	-32
Female	17 to 29	79	25	-27
Female	30 to 49	65	-13	-18
Female	50 to 69	97	8	18
Female	70 and over	136	-7	-4
Female	All ages	400	2	-10

6.2 All casualties by age and sex

Overall, 61% of casualties of all severities were male in the year ending June 2024.

In the year ending June 2024, the age group with the most male casualties of all severities for males and females was 30 to 49 year olds in the year ending June 2024.

Compared to the year ending June 2023 there was a larger fall in male casualties than female casualties, as shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Reported road casualties by age group and sex in Great Britain, the year ending June 2024 (provisional) compared with the year ending June 2023 and the year ending June 2014

Sex	Age group (years)	2024	% change from 2023	% change from 2014
Male	0 to 16	7,650	-4	-32
Male	17 to 29	23,176	-6	-38
Male	30 to 49	25,362	-7	-34
Male	50 to 69	15,287	-2	-21
Male	70 and over	5,035	-1	-15
Male	All ages	76,510	-5	-32
Female	0 to 16	5,129	-4	-37
Female	17 to 29	12,460	-6	-49
Female	30 to 49	16,091	-1	-35
Female	50 to 69	10,323	-4	-29
Female	70 and over	4,757	-1	-22
Female	All ages	48,760	-3	-38

7. Background quality information

Detailed guidance on road casualty statistics is given on our guidance page. A full list of the definitions used in this publication can be found in our notes and definitions documentation.

7.1 Quality and methodology

Quality

Road casualty statistics have been assessed as Accredited Official Statistics, indicating compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Full details of the quality of these statistics are available in the background quality report.

There are several important areas which users of the statistics should be aware of which are listed below.

Provisional figures

These provisional mid-year figures are the first accredited official statistics published on the number of road casualties in Great Britain during the year ending June 2024. They will be followed by the provisional annual estimates for the whole of 2024 published in May 2025. Final annual figures are scheduled for publication in September 2025.

These are provisional estimates which have not been validated in detail and include imputation for missing data. Missing data for City of London, Hampshire and Lincolnshire police forces has been imputed for some months where data was not supplied or not considered to be complete. Overall the imputed data accounts for an estimated 1% of casualties and 1% of fatalities. There may be some duplicates, as some casualties might have been logged twice or more, these will be deleted following end of year validation. The potential of duplicate records is relatively small and therefore this publication provides a good picture of the road safety landscape especially at high aggregation.

In recent years, some unexpected issues with data collection have been encountered, most notably for Staffordshire Police. A summary is available from our data quality page. These are unlikely to noticeably impact on the overall Great Britain road collision trends, but caution should be applied when considering geographical breakdowns by police force area in data table RAS90.

Provisional results for some road user types can be impacted by misclassified vehicle types. Misclassified vehicle types are reported back to the police who will return a designated vehicle type where notified. Vehicles are matched to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database and where there is a good body type match, vehicle type may be reclassified. These factors are unlikely to affect the high-level national trends shown, but will have a bigger impact on figures for some road user types.

Traffic figures and casualty rates

Road traffic figures for 2024 are available for this release, therefore the casualty rates have been produced using the data published by the Road Traffic Statistics team (Table TRA2501). The quarterly traffic data does not include pedal cyclists therefore an estimate has been made based on annual figures and added to the totals.

Under-reporting

Comparisons of road collision reports with death registrations show that very few, if any, road collision fatalities are not reported to the police. However, a considerable proportion of non-fatal casualties are not known to the police, as hospital, survey and compensation claims data all indicate a higher number of casualties than those recorded in police collision data. More information on the coherence of the police reported data with alternative sources can be found in our comparison to other sources of information on road casualties.

Changes in reporting systems used by police forces

From 2016 onwards, figures on the severity of injury have been affected by a large number of police forces changing their reporting systems. It is likely that the recording of injury severity is more accurate for forces using these new reporting systems. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Methodology Advisory Service have completed analysis to quantify the effect of the introduction of new injury based reporting systems on the number of slight and serious injuries reported to the police, and to estimate the level of slight and serious injuries as if all police forces were using injury-based reporting systems. For more information, please see our guide to severity adjustments.

Online self-reporting

Online self-reporting is part of a wider project for digital public contact known as Single Online Home. It is funded by the Home Office to allow people involved in road traffic collisions to report the collision to the police online should they choose to do so, rather than having to physically report it at a police station. The principle of online reporting is to make it easier for members of the public to report collisions. It is expected that the introduction of online reporting will affect the number of non-fatal (and particularly slight) casualties reported and therefore impact the total for Great Britain, as the public will have more reporting options available to them. See our analysis of the impact of online self reporting for more details.

7.2 User engagement, developments and STATS19 review

Details of users and uses of road casualty statistics and response to recent user feedback is available from our user engagement page.

The STATS19 system which provides the majority of statistics for this publication is periodically reviewed to keep up with changes in technology, to make improvements to completeness and accuracy, and to reduce the reporting burden. Key recommendations of the latest review, carried out in 2018, can be found in the full STATS19 review report and an update on progress in implementing them in our development roadmap.

7.3 Accredited Official Statistics and pre-release access

These statistics were designated as Accredited Official Statistics in July 2009. The continued designation was confirmed in July 2013. Accredited Official Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs. More information can be found on our accredited official statistics status webpage.

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found in our pre-release access list.

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10. Contact details

Road safety statistics

Email [email protected]