Unitary authority · England

Road risk in Northumberland

Northumberland ranks 154 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 36.6/100ONS code E06000057

Police recorded 345 injury collisions in Northumberland in 2025, hurting 459 people, of whom 132 were killed or seriously injured and 13 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 71.2 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 12% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 345 in 2025
People hurt: 459 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 132
Killed: 13
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 71.2 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 131.3 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 146 (recorded: 132)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 154 a year (recorded: 131.3)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 39.5 — rank 77
Population: 333,975
Risk score: 36.6/100 — rank 154 of 192

Compiled by Stephen Hall, Data lead, Swift Assist. Source: DfT STATS19 and DfT road traffic estimates (2025), OGL v3. Updated 2026-10-08.

Direction of travel

Five years of collisions in Northumberland

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 13.1%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 456 collisions.

Collisions per year in Northumberland

2025: 345 (down 15.6% on the year before) · peak 456 in 2022 · -13.1% across the period

Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.

Two ways of measuring

Northumberland looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Northumberland ranks 77. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 154 — a difference of 77 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Northumberland does less harm than its casualty count per resident implies. Places with heavy local travel and few through routes tend to look worse per head than the volume of driving warrants. Neither number is the true one. Which you should use depends on whether you are asking how safe it is to live somewhere or how safe it is to drive there.

Vehicle crime · year ending June 2026

Vehicle crime in Northumberland

2.72

offences per 1,000 residents

901

offences recorded, 12 months

193

of 287 areas, worst first

Northumberland recorded 2.72 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 901 offences and a population of 331,400 (ONS mid-2024), both taken from the same ONS release. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables, year ending June 2026; police recorded crime collected by the Home Office.

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Northumberland

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 345 collisions in Northumberland, the three groups appear 122 times between them — an involvement rate of 35.4%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	51	14.8%
Cyclists	34	9.9%
Motorcyclists	37	10.7%

A single collision can involve more than one of these groups and is then counted in each row, so the rows do not add up to a share of the total.

Darkness, weather and the time of year

When collisions happen in Northumberland

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Northumberland’s own shares over 1,184 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Northumberland	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	23.3%	28.7%	below the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	10.6%	6.3%	well above the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	28.3%	24.5%	above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	2.1%	1.4%	well above the national figure

On the darkness share, Northumberland ranks 181 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Northumberland run 2.9% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 297 collisions against 306.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Northumberland’s collisions — not that its roads are more dangerous overall. Read it alongside the casualties-per-mile-driven figure above.
Condition is recorded, not tested. The officer records the surface and light level at the scene. It is an observation, not a measurement, and it is not a finding that the condition caused the collision.
Exposure is not controlled for. Fewer people travel at 3am than at 3pm, so a collision in darkness is drawn from a smaller pool of journeys. Without hourly traffic counts, these shares describe when collisions happen rather than how risky an hour is.

Every authority compared on the same measures: winter road risk across Britain.

Benchmark

Northumberland against similar authorities

A national rank compares Northumberland with places that may be nothing like it. This is the comparison a council actually uses: its statistical nearest neighbours — the authorities ONS identifies as most similar on population, economy and demography, restricted to the same tier, so counties are compared with counties. Within this group Northumberland is 6 of 10 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 76.6.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Pembrokeshire	151.3	63.2	43
Carmarthenshire	123.9	63.2	42
Denbighshire	96.2	52.2	90
Dorset	92.2	55	74
Cumberland	82	54.5	76
Northumberland (this page)	71.2	36.6	154
County Durham	70.3	44.5	126
Shropshire	68.4	41.9	131
Somerset	67.7	34.1	161

Peer group: ONS statistical nearest neighbours, Open Government Licence v3. ONS notes the grouping is a snapshot that is not comparable with earlier editions, and is not a judgement about any authority’s performance. The road figures against it are ours.

National position

Northumberland against its closest comparators

Northumberland sits 154 of 192 nationally, and 127 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
152	Doncaster	37.3	93.6
153	Stockport	37.3	58.6
154	Northumberland (this page)	36.6	71.2
155	South Gloucestershire	35.8	42.4
156	East Renfrewshire	35.8	43.8

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Northumberland, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Northumberland?

In the latest official DfT figures, 345 road collisions in Northumberland injured or killed 459 people, 132 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 71.2 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Northumberland 154 of 192 authorities on our combined score, where 1 is the highest risk. The score weighs that rate alongside who is being hurt, the five-year trend and how often a serious collision proves fatal, so the rank is not the rate alone.

Are road casualties in Northumberland rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Northumberland were down 13.1%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 456 collisions. Year-to-year movement in a single authority is noisy, so the five-year direction carries more than any single year's change.

Who is being hurt on Northumberland's roads?

In Northumberland there were 51 collisions involving pedestrians, 34 involving cyclists and 37 involving motorcyclists, out of 345 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 35.4%, though a collision involving two of those groups is counted in both figures, so it is a comparable index rather than a clean share.

Who is responsible for road safety in Northumberland?

Northumberland is a unitary authority, and is the highway authority for its own roads. That means it sets local speed limits, designs junctions and crossings, and decides safety scheme spending. Motorways and most trunk roads are managed separately by National Highways in England, Transport Scotland, or the Welsh Government, so the worst road in an area is often not the council's to change. Enforcement sits with the local police force.

Where does this data come from?

DfT STATS19, the record police complete at the scene of every injury collision, published annually under the Open Government Licence, combined with DfT's own road traffic estimates for the mileage denominator. Collision, casualty and KSI counts on this page are for 2025; only the trend compares 2021–2025. STATS19 counts collisions police attended and recorded, so collisions never reported do not appear, and under-reporting is known to be worst for cyclists and for slight injuries.

What this means for you

What actually changes the odds in Northumberland

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Northumberland’s own figures above, each with the number that prompted it. Every guide explains how the thing works before it suggests buying anything, and most cost less than a third of a typical insurance excess.

Alarmed disc lock

£20–£50

Motorcyclists are in 11% of Northumberland's collisions, and bikes are also lifted rather than ridden away. An alarmed disc lock covers the theft half for about £30.

How it works →

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