1. Main findings

Between 2004 and 2023:

  • fatalities were down 40% from 671 to 405
  • serious injuries (adjusted) decreased by 39%
  • pedestrian traffic (distance walked) increased by 20%

Averaged over the period 2019 to 2023:

  • an average of 8 pedestrians died and 105 were seriously injured (adjusted) per week in reported road collisions

  • a majority of pedestrian fatalities (57%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 46% of all seriously injured (adjusted) casualties

  • 56% of pedestrian fatalities were in collisions involving a single car

  • 29% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on rural roads compared to 12% of all pedestrian casualties

  • 57% of pedestrian killed or seriously injured (KSI) (adjusted) casualties were male

The most common contributory factor allocated to pedestrians no contributory factors included in the public data

2. Pedestrian traffic and reported casualties

In 2023, 405 pedestrians were killed in Great Britain, whilst 6049 were reported to be seriously injured and 12809 slightly injured.

Table 1 and Chart 1 show that pedestrian traffic (measured by distance walked) has increased between 2004 and 2023 whilst fatalities, serious and slight injuries have fallen.

Between 2022 and 2023, pedestrian fatalities increased by 5% while pedestrian traffic (distance walked) increased by 3%.

Table 1: Number of reported pedestrian casualties by severity and traffic (pedestrian billion miles walked), GB: 2004 to 2023
Year Killed Serious Slight All Traffic
2004 671 9992 24218 34881 12.89
2005 671 9445 23165 33281 12.64
2006 675 9059 21248 30982 13.01
2007 646 8804 20741 30191 12.35
2008 572 8410 19500 28482 12.45
2009 500 7777 18610 26887 12.93
2010 405 7334 18106 25845 12.13
2011 453 7627 18118 26198 12.49
2012 420 7645 17153 25218 12.13
2013 398 6982 16653 24033 12.54
2014 446 7105 17197 24748 12.25
2015 408 6852 16801 24061 12.51
2016 448 6480 16622 23550 13.00
2017 470 6476 16859 23805 13.59
2018 456 6637 15339 22432 13.90
2019 470 6402 14898 21770 13.63
2020 346 4302 10102 14750 14.66
2021 361 4949 11344 16654 14.08
2022 385 5872 13070 19327 14.95
2023 405 6049 12809 19263 15.41
Source: DfT STATS19, National Travel Survey and Office for National Statistics population data

3. How far do pedestrians travel?

The National Travel Survey (NTS) which provides the number of trips and average distance travelled (NTS0303) by person per year for English residents. This is used to derive casualty rates per mile travelled for pedestrians, which also use the Great Britain population figure to estimate total distance walked each year.

4. Casualty rates per mile travelled

The pedestrian casualty rate has fallen for all severities in 2023 compared to 2004.

The overall casualty rate decreased by 54%. The fatality rate decreased by 50% compared to a 49% reduction for serious injuries and a 56% reduction for slight injuries.

Table 2: Casualty rates of pedestrian casualties by severity per billion miles walked, GB: 2004 to 2023
Year Killed Serious Slight All
2004 52 775 1879 2706
2005 53 747 1832 2632
2006 52 696 1633 2381
2007 52 713 1680 2445
2008 46 676 1567 2288
2009 39 601 1439 2079
2010 33 605 1493 2131
2011 36 611 1451 2098
2012 35 631 1415 2080
2013 32 557 1328 1917
2014 36 580 1403 2020
2015 33 548 1343 1923
2016 34 498 1278 1811
2017 35 477 1241 1752
2018 33 477 1104 1614
2019 34 470 1093 1598
2020 24 293 689 1006
2021 26 351 805 1182
2022 26 393 874 1292
2023 26 393 831 1250

5. Sex and age comparisons

Between 2019 and 2023, 57% of pedestrian casualties were male and 42% female.

There are 1.4 times more male than female pedestrian casualties overall. This compares to 1.7 more for 30-39, 1.8 more for 0-11and 0.8 more for 70+ - the only age group in which female casualties outnumber males.

6. Which vehicles are involved in collisions with pedestrians?

Between 2019 and 2023, most pedestrian fatalities occurred in 1 vehicle collisions involving a car (1099).

However, the highest proportion of casualties from single vehicle collisions involve 1 heavy goods vehicle (16.7%). The second highest proportion (10.3%) occurred in collisions when 3 or more other vehicles involved.

Table 3: Pedestrian casualties in reported road collisions by severity showing other vehicles involved GB: 2019 to 2023
Vehicles Fatalities Serious injuries Slight injuries All casualties % Fatalities
1 pedal cycle 12 688 1289 1989 0.6
1 motorcycle 49 1175 2536 3760 1.3
1 car 1099 19843 46330 67272 1.6
1 bus or coach 99 928 1928 2955 3.4
1 light goods vehicle 163 1946 4247 6356 2.6
1 heavy goods vehicle 188 406 535 1129 16.7
1 other vehicle 43 697 1619 2359 1.8
2 vehicles involved 197 1478 3153 4828 4.1
3 or more other vehicles involved 115 412 585 1112 10.3
Total 1965 27573 62222 91760 2.1

7. Time of day of collisions

The weekday peak time for pedestrian KSIs is from 3pm to 6pm. By contrast, the peak is from 4pm to 7pm at weekends.

8. What type of road?

Chart 5 shows that between 2019 and 2023, 66% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on urban roads compared to 87% of all pedestrian casualties. 5% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on motorways. This would be people outside their vehicles whether they are moving at the time or not.

In this report, urban roads are defined as those within an area of population of 10,000 or more in England and Wales or more than 3,000 in Scotland - roads outside of these areas are classified as rural https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-length-statistics-information/road-lengths-in-great-britain-statistics-notes-and-definitions.

9. Vehicle movement on the road

A majority of pedestrian fatalities 57 %) occur not at junction or within 20 metres compared to 46 % of serious injuries (adjusted). However, 37 % of fatalities occur at a junction compared to 47 % of serious injuries (adjusted). Pedestrian fatalities at roundabouts represent 1 % of all fatalities in contrast to 1 % of serious injuries (adjusted).

Table 4: Percentage of pedestrian KSI casualties by severity and junction detail where the collision occurred, GB: 2019 to 2023
Junction Fatalities Serious Slight All casualties
Not at junction or within 20 metres 57.1% 46% 44.8% 45.4%
T or staggered junction 24.5% 30.4% 30.2% 30.1%
Crossroads 7.2% 8.3% 7.6% 7.8%
Other junction 5.1% 6.8% 7.2% 7.1%
Roundabout 1.8% 2.7% 2.8% 2.8%
Private drive or entrance 1.6% 1.8% 2.1% 2%
More than 4 arms (not roundabout) 0.6% 1.8% 1.7% 1.7%
unknown (self reported) 0% 0.5% 1.7% 1.3%
Mini-roundabout 0.9% 1% 1.2% 1.2%
Slip road 1.3% 0.6% 0.5% 0.6%

Sections 10 not reproducible as data is not public and sections 11 and 14 are simply explanatory text.

This document is also useful for understanding the methodology behind the categories https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68373a464115cfe5bfaa2cd4/STATS20_2024_specification.pdf