Top 50 Countries by Drink-Driving Share in Road Fatalities (%), 2025

by admin December 24, 2025 642 16 min read

Overview

This ranking compares countries by the estimated share of road traffic fatalities where alcohol impairment (above the national legal limit) is recorded as a contributing factor. The metric is expressed as a percentage of all road deaths within each country.

A share is not the same as a “rate.” Two countries can show a similar drink-driving share while having very different overall road fatality rates per 100,000 people. This page includes a paired context view using overall road fatalities per 100,000.

Cross-country comparability is limited because legal BAC thresholds, testing coverage, and attribution rules differ across jurisdictions.

Key takeaways

The metric describes the composition of road fatalities linked to alcohol, not overall road safety.
A higher share can reflect both higher impairment risk and more complete detection and reporting.
A lower share does not automatically mean lower risk; alcohol involvement can be under-detected or classified differently.
Reading the share alongside overall fatalities per 100,000 helps separate composition from scale.
Comparisons are most reliable between countries with broadly similar enforcement and reporting practices.

Reference year

2025 edition

Unit / definition

Share of road traffic deaths attributed to alcohol (percent)

Coverage

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Source family

WHO Global Health Observatory / Road safety

Important note

Comparability depends on BAC limits, testing, and attribution rules

Table 1 — Top 20 countries with the highest drink-driving share in road fatalities (%)

Rank	Country	Share (%)

Bar chart — Top 20 highest share

Percent of road fatalities attributed to alcohol.

Chart unavailable in this environment.

Full ranking: Top 50 countries by drink-driving share (1–50)

Ranked by the share of road fatalities attributed to alcohol impairment (percent).

Rank	Country	Share (%)

Table 2 — Bottom 20 countries with the lowest drink-driving share (%)

Rank	Country	Share (%)

Table 3 — Drink-driving share vs road fatalities per 100,000 (context)

A paired view of composition (share) and overall burden (fatalities per 100,000).

Country	Share (%)	Road fatalities / 100k

Scatter chart: share vs road fatalities per 100,000

A context view of composition and overall burden.

Chart unavailable in this environment.

Correlation view (non-causal)

The scatter view places the drink-driving share next to the overall road fatality rate to provide context. It can highlight countries where a high share appears alongside a high overall burden, and countries where a high share is observed with a lower overall rate.

This view should not be read as evidence of causality. The share can move with enforcement and reporting practices, while the overall road fatality rate can reflect many other factors such as infrastructure, speeds, vehicle mix, and post-crash care.

Why this metric matters

It helps quantify how much of a country’s road mortality is linked to alcohol-impaired driving as a recorded contributing factor.
It supports prioritization of interventions such as roadside testing, targeted enforcement, and deterrence measures.
Paired with overall road fatality rates, it helps distinguish between composition (share) and scale (burden).
It can be used for monitoring when interpreted alongside changes in enforcement and reporting practices.

Comparability note

Cross-country differences in drink-driving share can reflect both real risk patterns and differences in measurement. National BAC limits vary, post-crash testing coverage differs, and jurisdictions apply different rules for attributing alcohol as a contributing factor.

For this reason, the ranking is best read as a structured overview of reported or estimated shares rather than a perfectly comparable score across countries.

What can distort results

Different legal BAC thresholds and definitions of impairment.
Variation in post-crash testing rates and laboratory capacity.
Underreporting where alcohol involvement is not consistently recorded.
Differences in attribution rules when multiple factors are present.
Small-number volatility in countries with relatively few annual road deaths.

Methodology

Countries are ranked by the share of road traffic deaths attributed to alcohol impairment (percent). Values are displayed in percentages with consistent rounding. The context indicator used on this page is the road traffic death rate per 100,000 population for the same country list.

Coverage reflects the number of countries embedded on the page for the selected edition.

FAQ

What is the difference between “share” and “rate”?

A share is the fraction of all road deaths attributed to alcohol within a country. A rate is the number of road deaths per population (typically per 100,000), which reflects overall burden.

Why might some countries appear unusually low?

Limited testing, incomplete linkage of forensic results to fatality statistics, or different attribution rules can reduce the measured share.