Welsh principal area · Wales

Road risk in Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire ranks 43 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Above averageRisk score 63.2/100ONS code W06000009

Police recorded 250 injury collisions in Pembrokeshire in 2025, hurting 375 people, of whom 107 were killed or seriously injured and 5 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 151.3 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 88% above the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 250 in 2025
People hurt: 375 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 107
Killed: 5
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 151.3 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 91 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 129 (recorded: 107)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 111.5 a year (recorded: 91)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 85 — rank 4
Population: 125,849
Risk score: 63.2/100 — rank 43 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 Pembrokeshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 20.8%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 250 collisions.

Collisions per year in Pembrokeshire

2025: 250 (up 18.5% on the year before) · peak 250 in 2025 · +20.8% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Pembrokeshire looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Pembrokeshire ranks 4. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 43 — a difference of 39 places.

That gap runs the other way: relative to the traffic its roads carry, Pembrokeshire 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 Pembrokeshire

0.87

offences per 1,000 residents

110

offences recorded, 12 months

282

of 287 areas, worst first

Pembrokeshire recorded 0.87 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.

Rate calculated from 110 offences and a population of 125,800 (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 Pembrokeshire

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 250 collisions in Pembrokeshire, the three groups appear 71 times between them — an involvement rate of 28.4%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	16	6.4%
Cyclists	14	5.6%
Motorcyclists	41	16.4%

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 Pembrokeshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Pembrokeshire’s own shares over 654 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Pembrokeshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	26.3%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	16.2%	6.3%	more than double the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	34.5%	24.5%	well above the national figure
On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities.	1.1%	1.4%	below the national figure

On the darkness share, Pembrokeshire ranks 137 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Pembrokeshire run 33.7% lower from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 130 collisions against 196.

What this does not tell you

A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Pembrokeshire’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

Pembrokeshire against similar authorities

A national rank compares Pembrokeshire 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 Pembrokeshire is 2 of 8 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 94.2.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Powys	161.2	65.7	32
Pembrokeshire (this page)	151.3	63.2	43
Carmarthenshire	123.9	63.2	42
Denbighshire	96.2	52.2	90
Dorset	92.2	55	74
Northumberland	71.2	36.6	154
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

Pembrokeshire against its closest comparators

Pembrokeshire sits 43 of 192 nationally, and 3 of 18 within Wales. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
41	Birmingham	63.3	134
42	Carmarthenshire	63.2	123.9
43	Pembrokeshire (this page)	63.2	151.3
44	Glasgow City	63	107.7
45	Ealing	62.6	156.1

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Pembrokeshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Pembrokeshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 250 road collisions in Pembrokeshire injured or killed 375 people, 107 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 151.3 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Pembrokeshire 43 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 Pembrokeshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Pembrokeshire were up 20.8%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 250 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 Pembrokeshire's roads?

In Pembrokeshire there were 16 collisions involving pedestrians, 14 involving cyclists and 41 involving motorcyclists, out of 250 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 28.4%, 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 Pembrokeshire?

Pembrokeshire is a welsh principal area, 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 Pembrokeshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Pembrokeshire’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 16% of Pembrokeshire'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 →

Dashcam (parking mode)

£50–£150

Collisions in Pembrokeshire are up 21% across the period. A dashcam with parking mode is the cheapest way to keep a disputed claim from becoming a 50/50 split.

How it works →

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