County council · England

Road risk in Staffordshire

Staffordshire ranks 137 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.

Below averageRisk score 40.1/100ONS code E10000028

Police recorded 1,295 injury collisions in Staffordshire in 2025, hurting 1,741 people, of whom 334 were killed or seriously injured and 32 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 50.9 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 37% below the median ranked authority (80.5).

Collisions: 1,295 in 2025
People hurt: 1,741 casualties
Killed or seriously injured: 334
Killed: 32
KSI per billion vehicle miles: 50.9 (median 80.5)
KSI, three-year average: 282.9 a year
Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025: 383 (recorded: 334)
Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average: 319.6 a year (recorded: 282.9)
KSI per 100,000 residents: 36.6 — rank 87
Population: 913,073
Risk score: 40.1/100 — rank 137 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 Staffordshire

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were up 109.5%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 1,295 collisions.

Collisions per year in Staffordshire

2025: 1,295 (up 11.6% on the year before) · peak 1,295 in 2025 · +109.5% across the period

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

Two ways of measuring

Staffordshire looks less dangerous per mile driven than per resident

Divide casualties by the people who live here and Staffordshire ranks 87. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 137 — a difference of 50 places.

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

Who is being hurt

Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Staffordshire

These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 1,295 collisions in Staffordshire, the three groups appear 442 times between them — an involvement rate of 34.1%.

Road user	Collisions	Share of all collisions
Pedestrians	211	16.3%
Cyclists	88	6.8%
Motorcyclists	143	11.0%

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 Staffordshire

DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Staffordshire’s own shares over 3,147 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.

Share of collisions	Staffordshire	National	How it reads
In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit.	28.7%	28.7%	close to the national figure
In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one.	9.1%	6.3%	well above the national figure
On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene.	25.9%	24.5%	close to 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, Staffordshire ranks 75 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.

The winter effect. Collisions in Staffordshire run 5.5% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 847 collisions against 803.

What this does not tell you

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

Inside the county

Where the casualties fall across Staffordshire’s districts

Staffordshire is the highway authority, but the collisions are spread unevenly across the 8 districts within it.

District	Collisions	Casualties	KSI
East Staffordshire	230	299	53
South Staffordshire	204	276	44
Stafford	193	257	52
Staffordshire Moorlands	163	239	51
Newcastle-under-Lyme	157	204	39
Lichfield	145	193	43
Cannock Chase	111	157	29
Tamworth	92	116	23

Benchmark

Staffordshire against similar authorities

ONS does name statistical neighbours for Staffordshire, but most of them are lower-tier districts that we do not publish as authority pages — they are not highway authorities, so their road figures belong to the county above them. Rather than compare against pages that do not exist, these are the authorities nearest to Staffordshire in the national table. That is a weaker comparison and we would rather say so than imply a like-for-like match we cannot actually make. Within this group Staffordshire is 19 of 21 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 65.8.

Authority	KSI / bn miles	Score	National rank
Caerphilly	88.1	39.5	138
Scottish Borders	81.7	40.8	135
Bolton	79.4	39.3	139
Hillingdon	65.9	39	141
Cornwall	65.8	39.2	140
Westmorland and Furness	61.8	41.1	134
North Northamptonshire	58	41.1	133
Staffordshire (this page)	50.9	40.1	137
Wokingham	42.4	40.2	136

National position

Staffordshire against its closest comparators

Staffordshire sits 137 of 192 nationally, and 113 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.

#	Authority	Score	KSI / bn miles
135	Scottish Borders	40.8	81.7
136	Wokingham	40.2	42.4
137	Staffordshire (this page)	40.1	50.9
138	Caerphilly	39.5	88.1
139	Bolton	39.3	79.4

See all 192 authorities →

Common questions

Road risk in Staffordshire, answered

How dangerous are the roads in Staffordshire?

In the latest official DfT figures, 1,295 road collisions in Staffordshire injured or killed 1,741 people, 334 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 50.9 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Staffordshire 137 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 Staffordshire rising or falling?

Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Staffordshire were up 109.5%, with 2025 the worst year of the period at 1,295 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 Staffordshire's roads?

In Staffordshire there were 211 collisions involving pedestrians, 88 involving cyclists and 143 involving motorcyclists, out of 1,295 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 34.1%, 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 Staffordshire?

Staffordshire is a county council, 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 Staffordshire

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Staffordshire’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 Staffordshire'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 Staffordshire are up 110% 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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