Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties Great Britain: Casualties and deprivation

Updated 28 September 2023

Applies to England

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About this release

This factsheet presents a high-level summary of statistics on the relationship between deprivation and reported road casualties in England between 2018 and 2022, based on the Department for Transport’s reported road casualties data and the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).

This factsheet includes data from a period influenced by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. More information on the impact of the pandemic on road casualties can be found in our 2020 report.

Main findings

These statistics show an association between casualties and deprivation at the national level.

For England as a whole:

  • a higher proportion of road casualties live in areas of high deprivation than low deprivation, as measured by the IMD

  • the last 5 years show broadly similar patterns and these patterns do not appear to have been greatly influenced by COVID-19, though the gap between the proportion of casualties in the most and least deprived areas has grown slightly

  • the relationship between casualties and deprivation varies by road user group and age group, with a greater disparity between most and least deprived deciles for younger pedestrians and pedal cyclists in particular.

Introduction

Many organisations have reported a relationship between more deprived areas and increased risk of road injury (some examples are given in the background information). This factsheet presents the latest statistics from the Department for Transport (DfT) road casualty data to present a high-level overview of the association between deprivation and road casualties, showing the latest patterns at a national level, covering England for the years 2018 to 2022 .

This update confirms patterns shown in previous work continue to hold. More detailed analysis would be possible and the department welcomes suggestions and feedback to the road safety statistics team. IMD data is made available as part of the road casualty open dataset for anyone wishing to carry out more in-depth research.

Measuring deprivation

The main measurement of deprivation for England is the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which is a measure of relative deprivation of lower layer super output areas (LSOAs). LSOAs are small areas roughly equivalent to postcode areas, each with a similar population size. IMD ranks the LSOAs in England from most deprived to least deprived, based on seven different domains of deprivation (income deprivation, employment deprivation, education, skills and training deprivation, health deprivation and disability, crime, barriers to housing and services and living environment deprivation).

For this analysis, deciles of deprivation have been used. These are calculated by grouping the LSOAs into 10 equal groups, based on the IMD ranking, with the first decile representing the most deprived 10% of areas, and the tenth decile the least deprived 10%. Each decile represents approximately 10% of England’s population from the most deprived 10% of the population to the least deprived 10%.

More information about how IMD is calculated is available in the latest IMD statistics.

Deprivation in road casualty statistics

Road collision location and casualty home postcode are recorded by police forces for STATS19 road casualty data. This means that the IMD rank of the collision location and casualty home postcode can be added to the data and used for analysis. This analysis looks at deprivation based on casualty home postcode.

In this factsheet, analysis focuses on killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties or casualties of all severities, as the number of fatalities is considered too small to analyse reliably when broken down by deprivation level.

More information on reported road casualty statistics including definitions of fatal, serious and slight casualties can be found within the road safety statistics guidance. This includes details of the adjustment to reporting of injury severity which is used throughout this publication.

Overall patterns

This section presents overall figures for casualties of all road user types, based on the IMD decile of the casualty’s home location.

Casualties

In each of the last 5 years, a higher proportion of reported road casualties were living in more deprived areas of the country compared to those from less deprived areas. Chart 1 shows the percentage of KSI casualties living in each IMD decile for years from 2018 to 2022.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that overall population in each IMD decile is broadly similar, so that these patterns are not likely to be explained by differences in the overall number of people living in different deciles.

Chart 1: Percentage of KSI casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

As shown in chart 2, a very similar pattern is present when looking at casualties of all severities over the last 5 years, with the exception that the percentage of casualties within the most deprived 10% was slightly lower than the percentage within the next most deprived decile.

Chart 2: Percentage of total casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Difference between most and least deprived areas

When looking over the last 10 years the gap between KSI casualties living in the most deprived and the least deprived decile has been widening.

Chart 3 shows that the proportion of KSI casualties in the most deprived decile has increased over the last 10 years while the proportion of KSI casualties in the least deprived decile has dropped. Therefore the gap between the most deprived and least deprived decile has increased over time.

Chart 3: Percentage of KSI casualties living within the least or most deprived IMD decile, 2012 to 2022 (England only)

Chart 4 shows the proportion of all casualties in the most and least deprived deciles since 2011. There has been a similar pattern to KSI casualties in Chart 3 with the gap between the most and least deprived decile widening over time.

Chart 4: Percentage of total casualties living within the least or most deprived IMD decile, 2012 to 2022 (England only)

Casualties by road user type and IMD decile

The relationship between casualties and deprivation is seen across all main modes of road travel, however the clearest association is for pedestrians and bus occupants. The relationship is weakest for car occupants and pedal cyclists.

The relationship between casualty numbers and deprivation can partly be explained through travel patterns which can lead to differing exposure to road traffic risk. However, the difference in relationship between casualties and deprivation by mode of travel is not simply explained by exposure.

For example, Chart 5 shows that for car occupant there is a higher proportion of casualties in the more deprived deciles than the less deprived deciles. However Chart 6 shows that those in more deprived deciles travel far less by car than those in less deprived deciles. This suggests that the risk for car occupants is much higher for the most deprived income deciles even though they have less exposure.

Chart 5: Percentage of casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by road user type, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Chart 6: Miles travelled by IMD decile of residence, by road user type, 2017 to 2021 (England only). Miles travelled are using National Travel Survey (NTS) data average from 2017 to 2019

Casualties by road user type, age and IMD decile

It is possible to further break down the data on road collision casualties by considering different age groups as well as road user types. This shows that patterns can vary by age group, for example showing greater differences between more and less deprived areas for younger pedestrians and cyclists.

It should be noted that these differences could reflect differences in travel patterns, and, to a lesser extent, the make up of population in different areas. Further work could be done to adjust for this but these factors are not covered in this initial analysis.

Bus occupants

Chart 7 shows the percentage of bus occupant casualties of different age groups that live within each deprivation decile. For most age groups there is a strong trend, with a higher proportion of casualties from more deprived deciles. However, for the over 70s the difference between the proportion of casualties in the most and least deprived deciles is notably lower.

Chart 7: Bus occupant casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by age, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Car occupants

Chart 8 shows that for car occupant casualties the first 3 age groups have a higher proportion of casualties from the most deprived deciles. However, for the over 70s this trend has reversed with a higher proportion of casualties coming from the least deprived deciles.

Chart 8: Car occupant casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by age, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Motorcyclists

For motorcyclists, Chart 9 shows that the 50 to 69 age group has a higher proportion of casualties in the middle deciles with less in both of the extremes, and for the over 70s there are more casualties in the middle to less deprived deciles.

Chart 9: Motor cyclist casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by age, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Pedal cyclists

For pedal cyclists, Chart 10 shows that within the 0 to 16 and 17 to 29 age bands, there were much higher proportions of casualties from more deprived areas. However, within the 50 to 69 and 70 and over age bands, the percentage of pedal cyclist casualties from less deprived areas is considerably higher.

Chart 10: Pedal cyclist casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by age, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Pedestrians

Chart 11 shows the difference between the least and most deprived deciles is most substantial for pedestrian casualties aged 0 to 16. By age 70 or over, the percentage of pedestrian casualties is relatively similar between the deprivation deciles.

Chart 11: Proportion of pedestrian casualties by IMD decile of casualty home postcode, by age, 2018 to 2022 (England only)

Further development

This report presents a high level initial analysis which illustrates how road casualties and deprivation are associated, and that this pattern is broadly unchanged over recent years.

This could be developed further, if this would be of interest to users of the road casualty statistics, for example by:

  • producing routine annual data tables to track changes over time
  • calculating casualty rates for different deprivation deciles, to adjust for the impact of exposure data
  • more detailed analysis to explore further variables, for example sex
  • wider research to attempt to understand more about what is driving the patterns shown

The department makes available open data which allows researchers to conduct their own analyses in further depth.

Any feedback on this initial analysis is welcome, by email to the road safety statistics team

Background information

About the data

This analysis uses data on road collisions and casualties reported to the police in England via the STATS19 collection system, which is used to produce the department’s road casualty statistics. Further information on the data collection is available in the road casualty statistics guidance.

While IMD decile is added to STATS19 records, this is not routinely published as part of published casualty statistics. However, the data can be obtained as part of the department’s open dataset.

IMD is based on the English indices of deprivation published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. For this analysis, 2019 data has been used, as it is currently the most recent available. 2019 postcode level IMD data has been used consistently throughout this factsheet, even over long time period comparisons, as any patterns seen will be due to road collisions and casualties changes rather than any geographical changes linked to IMD.

It is worth noting that although road collisions are included in calculating IMD deciles they are not heavily weighted so this should not impact any patterns seen in this factsheet.

There is not a UK wide Index of Multiple Deprivation. Each country in the UK produces its own version of the Index of Multiple Deprivation using similar methodologies. However, differences in the indicators used, the time periods covered, and the sizes of their small areas mean that it is not possible to make direct comparisons between these indices. for further information answers to some frequently asked questions are available.

There are numerous reports available online analysing the link between road safety and deprivation, including:

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