Portugal's roads have become much safer over the last thirty years

Thirty years ago, Portugal had some of the most fatal roads in Europe. It was second only to Latvia in terms of death rates from road injuries.

But since then, death rates have fallen by 84%.

The chart shows road deaths per 100,000 people compared to other European countries. This metric is age-standardized, so it keeps the population's age distribution constant over time.

Portugal still has slightly higher death rates than many of its neighbors in Western Europe, but the gap is much smaller than in the 1990s.

Portugal’s roads have become much safer for many reasons, including seatbelt laws, speed limits, stricter drink-driving enforcement, better road design and pedestrian zones, and improvements in the safety and resilience of cars themselves.

While it made dramatic improvements over the 1990s and early 2000s, this progress has slowed in the last five to ten years.