India records highest road deaths globally, accounting for over 14% of worldwide fatalities in 2023

India, which has recorded the maximum road deaths since such global data compilation started, registered 1.74 lakh such fatalities in 2023, and this was a little over 14% of the 12.2 lakh people who lost their lives in road crashes across the world.

NEW DELHI: ‘Road injuries’ was the eighth leading cause of deaths among males in India in 2023, and in the case of females, ‘falls’ was the eighth biggest cause of deaths, as per the latest WHO Global Health Estimates (GHE). Overall, road traffic injuries ranked the 10th leading cause of death for both males and females in India, while fatalities due to falls ranked 9th. India, which has recorded the maximum road deaths since such global data compilation started, registered 1.74 lakh such fatalities in 2023, and this was a little over 14% of the 12.2 lakh people who lost their lives in road crashes across the world. This has only increased in the past two years to reach 1.83 lakh in 2025. The figures underline the continuing scale of the road safety challenge in the country, where road crashes claim 500 lives daily. Falls in India claimed 25,150 lives, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, which was around 3% of the total 8.42 lakh lives lost in such incidents. Most of the deaths due to road crashes and falls are preventable. The data also highlights the significant burden of injuries that can result in loss of life and have wider social and economic consequences for families. As per the WHO report, globally, road traffic injuries were the 8th biggest cause of death in low-income countries and the 10th biggest in middle-income countries. Globally, it was ranked 11th, indicating that the high number of such deaths not only has a huge burden on low- and middle-income countries but also a major concern for the global community, despite many developed nations having been successful in bringing down fatalities due to road crashes.

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The differences in rankings across income groups also reflect the varying burden of road injuries across countries and regions. Road safety experts have maintained that low- and middle-income countries need to find solutions to this “avoidable disaster” taking into account the local conditions, including heterogeneous road users and poorly sensitised authorities about the concept of safety of all users. They said addressing the problem would require greater attention to the safety needs of different categories of road users and a stronger focus on preventing crashes and reducing their consequences.

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