Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
62
Arab Region
OIC countries in the Arab region are all middle to high income countries and vehicle ownership
rates are also markedly higher than OIC countries in the African region. However, on average
the mortality rates are only marginally lower than the African countries, but significantly higher
than those in high income countries in for example Europe. The mortality rates in some OIC
countries in the Arab region are significantly lower (e.g. Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates) than others. With the exception of Egypt, vehicle ownership rates in these countries
also tend to be higher implying that the supporting road infrastructure is of a better quality
resulting in fewer fatalities, also among vulnerable road users. Amongst the Arab countries,
Libya shows an extremely high mortality rate and this data should be treated with some caution.
If these data are correct, Libya’s road safety situation deserves special attention.
Table 14: Key statistics of OIC countries in the Arab region
Country
Population
[million]
Vehicle
ownership
(v./1,000 p.)
pcGNI [US$]
Income
group
Estimated
road deaths
Mortality rate
[deaths/100,000
population]
Djibouti .9 1,030 Middle 216 24.7
Mauritania 3.9 107 1,060 Middle 952 24.5
Yemen 24.4 49 1,330 Middle 5,248 21.5
Sudan 38. 8 1,550 Middle 9,221 24.3
Morocco 33. 100 3,020 Middle 6,870 20.8
Egypt 82.1 86 3,140 Middle 10,466 12.8
Tunisia 11. 158 4,200 Middle 2,679 24.4
Jordan 7.3 174 4,950 Middle 1,913 26.3
Algeria 39.2 186 5,330 Middle 9,337 23.8
Iraq 33.8 134 6,720 Middle 6,826 20.2
Lebanon 4.8 348 9,870 Middle 1,088 22.6
Libya 6.2 573 12,930 Middle 4,554 73.4
Bahrain 1.3 409 19,700 High 107 8.0
Oman 3.6 298 25,150 High 924 25.4
Saudi Arabia 28.8 229 26,260 High 7,898 27.4
UAE 9.3 286 38,360 High 1,021 10.9
Kuwait 3.4 547 45,130 High 629 18.7
Qatar 2.2 299 86,790 High 330 15.2
Palestine
Somalia 10.5 6 Low 2,664 25.4
Syria
Comoros
Total 343,7 72,943
Weighted Avg. 134 7,778.24 21.2
Source: WHO (WHO, 2015b)
Note: Weighted averages based on population data