in the European Union

1. INJURIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION – MORTALITY
Figure 1: Injury death rates and injury deaths by country, EU27
Injury
deaths in %
of all causes
of death
8%
Source: Eurostat, 3 year average of latest available years (mostly 2003-2005). Data presentation: Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit (KfV), 2007
Values for CY were derived from WHO Health for all Database (no values available at Eurostat). For a detailed explanation of the sources, please see Annex.
Huge disparities among EU Member States – well known, well accepted?
There are huge disparities among EU Member States in the number of injuries: the risk of dying from an injury in Lithuania is over five times
higher than in the Netherlands. These differences indicate a high potential for reducing injury mortality that has not yet been adequately
addressed. If every country in the EU27 equaled the performance of those reporting the lowest mortality rate, almost 100 000 lives could be
saved each year in the Community. Solely reducing the injury mortality rate in the new EU Member States to the EU15 average would save
more than 20 000 lives a year in these countries. These inequalities are ethically unacceptable taking into account the strong evidence that
prevention works (Figure 1 and Table 1).
Accidents and injuries place a huge burden on societies and individuals globally and also in the EU. One of the main contributing factors
to that record is the enormous human cost of premature death. During the years 2003 to 2005 accidents and injuries accounted “only”
for 5% of all deaths, but for 18% of all deaths before the age of 60, and for an alarming two thirds of all deaths in the 15 to 24 year-olds
(Table 1 and Table 2).
Table 1: Injury deaths in % of all causes of death by age group, EU27
All ages < 1 year* 1 - 4 years* 5 - 14 years* 15 - 24 years 25 - 44 years 45 - 64 years 65+
All countries EU27 5% 3% 27% 37% 65% 34% 8% 3%
Minimum 3.5% (UK) 0.7% (DK) 16.8% (IT) 29.1% (IE) 39.3% (CY) 26.2% (BG) 5.4% (UK) 1.4% (BG ,EL)
Maximum 12.6% (LT) 12.0% (EE) 51.9% (LV) 65.7% (CY) 77.4% (EE) 51.6% (LT) 21.2% (LT) 5.0% (FR)
Source: Eurostat, 3 year average of latest available years (mostly 2003-2005). Data presentation: Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit (KfV), 2007
* MT and LU were excluded as the data is only available for the age group of 0-14 years
Values for CY were derived from WHO Health for all Database (no values available at Eurostat)
INJURIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION – MORTALITY
Country
Standardised Injury
Death Rate
Injury deaths in
% of all causes of
death
LT 149.0 12.6%
LV 132.4 10.1%
EE 123.4 9.9%
HU 74.8 6.6%
FI 69.2 8.8%
SI 65.8 8.0%
CZ 64.2 6.3%
RO 63.6 5.2%
PL 62.3 6.8%
PT 57.6 5.0%
SK 56.0 5.9%
BE 54.9 6,1%
FR 52.7 7.6%
DK 48.7 5.7%
LU 46.1 6.3%
BG 45.4 3.5%
AT 43.6 5.7%
CY 41.1 6,2%
SE 40.9 5.2%
IT 34.1 4.7%
EL 33.0 3.9%
IE 32.9 4.9%
ES 32.7 4.4%
DE 31.9 4.0%
UK 28.6 3.5%
MT 28.3 4.1%
NL 27.7 3.8%
EU25 43.9 5.3%
EU27 45,4 5.2%
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