Australians are nearly four times more likely to die in road crashes if they live north of the Tropic of Capricorn than people to the south.
Australian Automobile Association analysis of road deaths data shows there were 15.05 deaths per 100,000 Australians in those parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory north of the Tropic of Capricorn in 2022. The road crash death rate per 100,000 Australians south of the tropic (excluding Western Australia) was 3.96.
For 2021, when Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics figures are also available for Western Australia, there were 11.58 road crash deaths per 100,000 people north of the Tropic of Capricorn and 4.09 per cent south of the tropic.
The disparity over road safety outcomes between north and south mirror the difference between the death rates between people who live in cities and those living in regional Australia.
They underline the need for greater transparency of road crash data so we can better understand the factors driving road deaths, which are increasing despite all governments having signed up to a target to halve road deaths by 2030.