25-07-2025
'Vision Zero': Why are Norwegian roads so safe?
These 89 break down to just 16 deaths per million inhabitants, and represent a 14 percent reduction on the rate Norway reported in 2023. It is only one-fifth the death rate of Serbia, the country rated by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) as having the most dangerous roads.
Sweden ranks second with 20 deaths per million inhabitants, and Denmark ranks fourth with 24. Finland with 31 is the worst performer in the Nordics. Germany, with 33, has double Norway's traffic death rate while Italy on 51, has triple Norway's rate.
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Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Slovakia, and Ireland also had the lowest death rates per billion vehicle-km travelled.
Norway has led the
ETSC's Annual Road Safety Performance Index
for ten years in a row, something the council puts down to its continual efforts to improve road safety, with 179 action measures in 15 priority areas in its current three-year road safety strategy, winning it the 2025 PIN Traffic Safety Award.
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In a page in the index, Norway's transport minister Jon-Ivar Nygård put the country's success down to its "systematic, evidence-based and long-term efforts", and particularly to its Vision Zero methodology.
Norwegian cars increasingly, he said, travel within the speed limit thanks to hard-hitting publicity campaigns by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, automatic speed cameras, and traffic police with unmarked vehicles.
Norway is aiming to reduce the number of road deaths still further to under 50 by 2030 and to reduce the number of serious injuries to under 350.
To achieve this, Norway's government plans "increased control and enforcement", "targeted campaigns", and new cameras at known danger spots.
The next few years will also see an increased focus on motorcycles and e-scooters.
