Statistics on road traffic accidents: documentation of statistics

Road traffic accidents involving personal injury known to the police and reported by the police to Statistics Finland.

The statistics contain data on the following:
- The accident: seriousness, type, time, number of parties involved
- Location of accident: region, municipality, location on road network, speed limit, intersection
- Conditions: road conditions (dry, wet…), weather (clear, rainy…), light conditions
- Parties involved: road user group, age, gender, nationality, breathalyser test result, use of intoxicants, driving licence details, personal identification details.

The data cover all fatal accidents and the vast majority of accidents involving personal injury. The annual publication includes all accidents. The data on individual units are confidential.

The statistics on road traffic accidents contain diverse data on road traffic accidents involving personal injury and on parties involved in them since 1931.

The data are published as preliminary every month and as final annually. The data are used to monitor the road safety situation both nationally and internationally. The data are based on road traffic accidents known to the police.

An event resulting in personal or property damage that has occurred in an area intended for public transport according to the Road Traffic Act or used generally for traffic and involving at least one moving vehicle is considered a road traffic accident. In addition to vehicles defined in the Road Traffic Act, trams and trains in level crossing accidents are also counted as vehicles. A pedestrian falling is not a traffic accident, falling on a bicycle (= a vehicle) is.

Units of the statistics on road traffic accidents: Accidents, Deaths, Injured (incl. seriously injured), Seriously injured, Accidents known to the police, Fatal accidents known to the police, Accidents known to the police involving injuries, Accidents known to the police involving serious injuries.

Register data are combined with the help of unique identifiers: road traffic accidents, parties involved in accidents, vehicles and persons have their own identifiers.

Units of the statistics on road traffic accidents: Accidents, Deaths, Injured (incl. seriously injured), Seriously injured, Accidents known to the police, Fatal accidents known to the police, Accidents known to the police involving injuries, Accidents known to the police involving serious injuries

The reference period of statistics is a calendar year and month.

The statistics on road traffic accidents cover regionally the whole of Finland. The regional classification is by the most recent published year.

The statistics on road traffic accidents cover accidents recorded in the information system of the police.

Data from 1931 onwards. The data are published as preliminary every month and as final annually.

The statistics on road traffic accidents are published once a month as preliminary data and once a year as a final version.

The published data can be regarded as relatively reliable. The statistics cover fatal accidents to nearly one hundred per cent. The coverage is controlled by means of cause of death certificates.

The coverage of persons injured in road traffic accidents is around 30 per cent. There are differences in the data on different types of accidents. The coverage is poorest for cyclists injured in individual accidents. The shortfalls are due to the fact that all accidents are not reported to the police. The majority of the missing accidents resulting in injuries are only minor injuries, because the Road Traffic Act obliges to report accidents to the police only if someone has been seriously injured.

Data on road traffic accidents are released as preliminary monthly data, approximately three weeks from the end of the month. The final data is published annually in January, approximately 12 months after the end of the statistical year.

The data are published on the day indicated in the release calendar.

The data are geographically comparable.

Between 1931 and 1940 the statistics included only accidents involving a motor-driven vehicle. A considerable change in the statistics took place in 1978 when injuries no longer included bruises, scratches and similar, not leading to need of treatment. The change in the definition reduced the number of injured persons by nearly 30 per cent.

The Police started using the new information system in 1995. The transfer to it has caused problems in comparing the accident and injury figures. The change in the data collection did not affect comparability in cases of deaths, which are still checked in the statistics on causes of death as well.

In 2003, Statistics Finland introduced a new information system for the processing of road traffic accident data. The modernised information system enabled more thorough processing of accident data and easier utilisation of other data. The introduction of more accurate statistical bases has raised the numbers of injured by around eight per cent. The revision had not an effect on the numbers of deaths.

Since the beginning of 2007, data on road traffic accidents have been supplemented monthly with data obtained from the preliminary data sheets filled in by the police members of the Road Accident Investigation Teams. This improves the preliminary data especially in the recording of alcohol cases.

Accidents in which a vehicle has crashed onto an oncoming vehicle as a result of swerving have been classified as head-on collisions instead of swerving accidents from 2014 onwards. The data on type of accident are not fully comparable with previous years.

For the year 2014, we adopted the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)'s care registers for specialised health care and basic outpatient health care and the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine's conversion table licensed to the EU countries. By using it the diagnoses set in health care can be converted into AIS values (Abbreviated Injury Scale) used in the classification of seriousness of road traffic accidents. By combining the care register and accident data, data are produced on the number of seriously injured persons on the annual level.

Comparability of deaths remains valid until the beginning of the time series.
The latest change for injured persons has taken place in 2014.

According to international recommendations, a person who has died as a result of an accident within 30 days of the accident, excluding those dying of seizures, is defined as a person killed in a road traffic accident. Statistics Finland does not remove suicides in road traffic from the statistics on road traffic accidents. Some countries use a time limit that differs from the 30-day limit for determining road traffic fatalities. The coverage of fatal accidents is not one hundred per cent in all countries.

The number of road traffic fatalities in the cause of death statistics is slightly higher than the figures in the statistics on road traffic accidents due to different definitions: for example, deaths after 30 days are included in the cause of death statistics.

In addition to the statistics on road traffic accidents compiled by Statistics Finland, the Finnish Crash Data Institute (OTI), which belongs to the Finnish Motor Insurers’ Centre, reports statistics on the same topic based on different principles. The OTI’s topic-specific reports and separate studies can cover fatal accidents investigated by the investigation teams or damage indemnified from the motor liability insurance. The data for the OTI annual report are fatal road traffic accidents investigated by the Road Accident Investigation Teams. The Road Accident Investigation Teams investigate all fatal traffic and off-traffic accidents in Finland. Insurance companies' traffic accident statistics are annual statistics concerning traffic accidents caused by vehicles insured by insurance companies providing motor liability insurance in Finland and indemnified from the motor liability insurance. The data are mainly based on data provided by policyholders. The statistics do not include voluntary motor liability insurance covering only accidents resulting in damage to one's own vehicle. Most of the accidents in the statistics are property damages in which compensation for damages to another vehicle or other property has been paid out. For property damage, it is justified to use statistics based on accidents covered by motor liability insurance, as they also include data on property damage not reported to the police. Traffic damage data can be viewed through the Traffic Damage Gate (in Finnish).

Traffic accident cases are also recorded by hospitals and health care centres, but the collected data are mainly intended for health care and cannot be used properly in traffic safety work. Health care data can be used as supplementary data because data not included in other statistics are available from them, such as persons injured in pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

In 2020, a report Road traffic accident statistics in Finland (in Finnish) was published in the Traficom series of studies and reports, which examined the differences between the statistics.

Preliminary annual data can be calculated from the monthly preliminary data of the statistics on road traffic accidents. However, data on seriously injured persons have been combined only with final annual data.

The statistics on road traffic accidents are a total survey. Statistics Finland receives road traffic accident data from the police recorded in the police information system (PATJA).

Statistics Finland supplements its annual data with data from statistics on causes of death. The data are also supplemented with information on accident locations from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's Digiroad information system, data from the Rescue Services' PRONTO statistics on resources and accidents, data on coercive measure from justice statistics, and with data on fatal drunk driving accidents from the Road Accident Investigation Teams. The data on road traffic accidents are also supplemented annually by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom's data on driving licences and motor vehicles. Information on the seriousness of injuries is derived from the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)’s care registers for specialised health care and basic outpatient health care and the conversion table licensed to the EU Member States by the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine.

The data sources are road traffic accidents involving personal injury entered into the information system of the police and reported by the police to Statistics Finland. The data on accidents are recorded into the police information system from where they are transferred to Statistics Finland three times per month. The data from the police are supplemented with data from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom and from Statistics Finland’s statistics on causes of death.

Data from police departments are transferred to a centralised register from which new data are edited and transferred to Statistics Finland three times a month. The data for each month are updated three months after its ending.

The obligation to provide data related to the compilation of the statistics is based on the Statistics Act and its Section 14 (stat.fi/meta/lait/statistics-act-2802004_en.html). According to the Act: “Notwithstanding the provisions on secrecy, state authorities shall be obliged to provide Statistics Finland with such data in their possession that are necessary for the production of statistics, as well as with data on their own activities, finances, duties, staff and other resources required in their activities.”

It is checked that the values of the variables in the database are logically possible. Revision runs are made at different stages of the process and the data are corrected based on them.

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The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics. 

Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States. 

Further information: Statistical legislation 

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements of the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Violation of data protection is punishable. 

Further information: Data protection | Statistics Finland (stat.fi) 

Both the tables and figures of publications and their database tables have been compiled so that sensitive data, such as on the numbers of persons under alcohol or other intoxicants, are not published on the level of municipalities but on the level of the whole country. When releasing tables, it is made sure that no individual person is identified from the data of the table. The data of the tables are made less detailed by classifying variables, such as age data, in tables that do not cover the whole country. No individual person can be identified from the tables even if there is only one observation in some cell.

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data at 8 am on weekdays in its web service. The release times of statistics are given in advance in the release calendar available in the web service. The data are public after they have been updated in the web service. 

Further information: Publication principles for statistics at Statistics Finland 

Statistics Finland also maintains the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's data on road traffic accidents. At the request of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Statistics Finland releases data only to those parties for whom the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency grants a user licence and for whom the police have granted a permission to release the data in Statistics Finland's data permission.

The statistics on road traffic accidents serve the monitoring of the traffic safety situation nationally and internationally. The data of the statistics are used as bases for traffic safety measures and traffic planning, for example. On the national level, the users are ministries, central agencies and transport sector organisations, on the local level mainly municipalities. Internationally, the data are delivered to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the OECD’s International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD) and the European Union’s database on road accidents CARE, which is based on a Council Decision (93/704/EC).

Statistics Finland maintains a separate database service on road traffic accidents financed by Statistics Finland, Finnish Road Safety Council, National Police Board of Finland, Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom and Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency. In addition, database tables are published in the Astika service subject to a charge. In 2014, geographic information on road traffic accidents was released for open use through interface services.

Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published. 

In addition to statistical data published in the StatFin database, a release on the key data is usually published in the web service. If the release contains data concerning several reference periods (e.g. monthly and annual data), a review bringing together these data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as mere database releases in the StatFin database. No release or review is published in connection with these database releases. 

Releases and database tables are published in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may have more limited content than in Finnish. 

Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service. 

The release of unit-level data on road traffic accidents for research use is decided by Statistics Finland's research services and, if necessary, by the Head of the Department. Each release of data is considered case-specifically.

Statistics Finland also maintains the Finnish Transport Agency's data on road traffic accidents. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency decides and is responsible for the releasing of its own data. Statistics Finland also provides information services in the name of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency on behalf of that agency. At the request of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Statistics Finland releases data only to those parties for whom the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency grants a user licence and for whom the police have granted a permission to release the data.

The Director General of Statistics Finland decides on all releases of data abroad.

Information services based on the statistics on road traffic accidents follow the principles of this document. However, it must be taken into account when preparing information service assignments that assignments are case-specific.

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

The statistics were audited in autumn 2017.

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice. 

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi) 

Data are released to all users at the same time. Statistical data may only be handled at Statistics Finland and information on them may be given before release only by persons involved in the production of the statistics concerned or who need the data of the statistics concerned in their own work before the data are published. 

Further information: Publication principles for statistics 

Unless otherwise separately stated in connection with the product, data or service concerned, Statistics Finland is the producer of the data and the owner of the copyright. The terms of use for statistical data.