Road traffic injury is a major cause of death and injury in the Region of the Americas, especially affecting the health and lives of adolescents and young people between 15 and 29 years of age. The risk of dying due to road traffic injury is particularly high for vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

This data visualization presents estimates of the burden of road traffic injury, including mortality and disability measures by age, sex, and country in the Region of the Americas from 2000 to 2019.

Mortality

In the Region of the Americas in 2019, it is estimated that road traffic injury accounts for:

  • 154,780 deaths (95% UI: 128,125 to 184,290), a slightly increased from 2000 where an estimated 138,058 deaths (95% UI: 125,054 to 149,635) occurred. 
  • The crude mortality rates stagnated from 16.7 deaths (95% UI: 15.3 to 18.1) per 100,000 population in 2000 to 15.3 deaths (95% UI: 12.7 to 18.3) per 100,000 population in 2019.
  • The age-standardized deaths rates slightly decreased from 16.9 deaths (95% UI: 15.6 to 18..3) per 100,000 population in 2000 to 14.4 deaths (95% UI: 11.9 to 17.1) per 100,000 population in 2019.
  • This death rate is higher for men (22.9 deaths [95% UI: 18.8 to 27.3] per 100,000 population) than for women (6.3 deaths [95% UI: 5.3 to 7.4] per 100,000 population).

The countries with the highest death rates (more than 6 deaths per 100,000 population) in 2019 are:

  1. Dominican Republic
  2. Venezuela
  3. Saint Lucia
  4. Guatemala
  5. Belize
  6. Bolivia
  7. Paraguay

The countries with the lowest death rates (lower than 2.0 deaths per 100,000 population) in 2019 are:

  1. Barbados
  2. Grenada
  3. Bahamas
  4. Cuba
  5. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  6. Canada
  7. Antigua and Barbuda

Beyond these deaths, road traffic crashes lead to injuries that affect people’s lives in the short and long term. 

Suggested citation

PAHO. The burden of road traffic injury in the Region of the Americas, 2000-2019. Pan American Health Organization. 2021.

DATA CLASSIFICATION

In the map and horizontal bar chart, the data is presented in five classes created using the quantile classification method. Each class contains 20% of countries, which is easy to interpret. The quintile intervals are labeled sequentially from Quintile 1, also called the bottom quintile which includes the lowest fifth (0 to 20%) of data points to Quintile 5 (or top quintile), which includes the top fifth (80% to 100%) of data points.

INDICATOR DEFINITION

Measure: Death, Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Years Lived with Disability (YLDs), and Years of Life Lost (YLLs) due to premature death.  

Metric: Rate

Unit of Measure: For mortality measures: deaths per 100,000 population. For measures of burden of disease: years per 100,000 population 

Topic: Mortality and burden of disease

Rationale: Measuring how many people die each year and why they died is one of the most important means – along with gauging how diseases and injuries are affecting people – for assessing the effectiveness of a country’s health system. Statistics of causes of death and disability help inform public health policy and planning.

Definitions:

Road injury death rate: Number of deaths due to road injury in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

DALY rate: Number of DALYs due to road injury in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

YLD rate: Number of YLD due to road injury in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

YLL rate: Number of YLL due to road injury in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

Disaggregation: Age, Sex, Country, and Year.

The categories "All-ages, and Age-standardized included in the dimension Age, have the following meaning:

  • All-ages indicate that the death rate was computed by the aggregation of deaths from every age group, and the rate is crude (without removing the effect of age distribution across population groups or geographies).
  • Age-standardized indicates that the death rate refers to all ages but it has been age-standardized by the direct method using the WHO world standard population.

Method of estimation: Mortality and burden of disease measures by cause, age, sex, and location (countries, the region of the Americas, and subregions) were computed based on estimates of the absolute number of deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality from the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Health Estimates 2019 (GHE). These data represent the best and most updated estimates of the WHO which have been computed using standard categories, definitions, and methods to ensure cross-country comparability, and may not be the same as official national estimates. 

Methodological details:

Data sources and methods for estimating causes of deaths and burden of diseases are described in the following documents

Method of estimation of the regional and subregional aggregates: Calculated by aggregating the country values (both numerator and the population) using population estimates from the World Population Prospects 2019, produced by the UN Population Division, as denominators.

Preferred data sources: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems with complete coverage and medical certification of cause of death.

  1. WHO. WHO methods and data sources for country-level causes of death 2000-2019. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. Available online (accessed 1 February 2021).
  2. WHO. WHO methods and data sources for global burden of disease estimates, 2000-2019. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2020. Available online (accessed 1 February 2021).
  3. PAHO. Methodological Notes, NMH Data Portal. Pan American Health Organization. 2021.

Implementation of key evidence-based interventions

Road traffic deaths and injuries are preventable. Save LIVES: a road safety technical package is an evidence-based inventory of priority interventions with a focus on Speed management, Leadership, Infrastructure design and improvement, Vehicle safety standards, Enforcement of traffic laws and post-crash Survival. It aims to support decision-makers and practitioners in their efforts towards reducing road traffic deaths and injuries and achieving the Sustainable Development Goal targets 3.6 and 11.2.

This scorecard presents the current status of the implementation of evidence-based interventions included in the Save LIVES technical packages in countries of the Americas.

 

 

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