We often find ourselves criticizing the state of our roads, and when we do, we end up using a typically Portuguese phrase: “outside it must be better”. Well, apparently that's not quite true, as now proved by a report released by the European Commission to assess the quality of roads in the Member States.
According to the report, Portugal is the second country in the European Union with the best roads with a rating of 6.05 points on a scale of 1 to 7 . Just ahead of our country comes the Netherlands with a score of 6.18 points, while France completes the podium with a total of 5.95 points. The European Union average stands at 4.78 points.
The ranking, which is based on a survey by the World Economic Forum, places Portugal ahead of countries such as Germany (5.46 points), Spain (5.63 points) or Sweden (5.57 points). In 2017 Portugal had already achieved a place on the podium, however, at the time the 6.02 points achieved only allowed a third place behind Holland and France.
Loss ratio also falling
In a diametrically opposite position to the Portuguese, we find countries like Hungary (3.89 points), Bulgaria (3.52 points), Latvia (3.45 points), Malta (3.24 points) and the (nothing) coveted The title of country with the worst roads in the European Union belongs to Romania (as in 2017), which scores only 2.96 points (were 2.70 in 2017).
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With regard to accidents, a report published by the European Commission indicates that between 2010 and 2017 fatalities in road accidents decreased by around 36% in Portugal (the average reduction in the EU was 20%).
This reduction in the number of fatalities meant that in 2017 (the year to which the report refers), the number of road deaths per million inhabitants was 58 deaths per million inhabitants, a figure above the European average of 49 deaths per million inhabitants and which places Portugal in 19th place among the 28 Member States.
First on the list comes Sweden (25 deaths per one million inhabitants), followed by the United Kingdom (28 deaths per one million inhabitants) and Denmark (30 deaths per one million inhabitants). In the last places we find Bulgaria and Romania with 96 and 99 deaths per million inhabitants, respectively.
Source: European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union.