Road risk in Wirral
Wirral ranks 75 of 192 British highway authorities on our road risk score. Here is what the official record shows, and how it compares.
Police recorded 343 injury collisions in Wirral in 2025, hurting 419 people, of whom 81 were killed or seriously injured and 3 were killed. Set against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 107.4 killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, 33% above the median ranked authority (80.5).
- Collisions
- 343 in 2025
- People hurt
- 419 casualties
- Killed or seriously injured
- 81
- Killed
- 3
- KSI per billion vehicle miles
- 107.4 (median 80.5)
- KSI, three-year average
- 89.3 a year
- Severity-adjusted KSI, 2025
- 109.9 (recorded: 81)
- Severity-adjusted KSI, three-year average
- 120 a year (recorded: 89.3)
- KSI per 100,000 residents
- 24.6 — rank 164
- Population
- 329,896
- Risk score
- 54.8/100 — rank 75 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.
Five years of collisions in Wirral
Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions were down 17.3%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 437 collisions.
Collisions per year in Wirral
2025: 343 (up 0.3% on the year before) · peak 437 in 2022 · -17.3% across the period
Axis clipped to the data range to show year-on-year movement.
Wirral looks more dangerous per mile driven than per resident
Divide casualties by the people who live here and Wirral ranks 164. Divide by the miles actually driven on its roads and it ranks 75 — a difference of 89 places.
That gap is the signature of a place that absorbs other people’s traffic. Relative to the volume its roads carry, the harm done here is worse than the resident population suggests, which is the pattern you would expect where a trunk route, a commuter corridor or a visitor economy brings in drivers who are not counted in the denominator everyone else uses. 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 Wirral
2.04
offences per 1,000 residents
670
offences recorded, 12 months
241
of 287 areas, worst first
Wirral recorded 2.04 vehicle offences per 1,000 residents, below the England and Wales rate of 5.04.
Rate calculated from 670 offences and a population of 328,900 (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.
Pedestrians, cyclists and riders in Wirral
These are the road users with the least protection when something goes wrong, and they carry a disproportionate share of the serious injuries. Across 343 collisions in Wirral, the three groups appear 198 times between them — an involvement rate of 57.7%.
| Road user | Collisions | Share of all collisions |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians | 78 | 22.7% |
| Cyclists | 78 | 22.7% |
| Motorcyclists | 42 | 12.2% |
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.
When collisions happen in Wirral
DfT records the light level and road surface at every collision, but publishes neither below national level. These are Wirral’s own shares over 1,086 collisions, with the national figure beside each one for comparison.
| Share of collisions | Wirral | National | How it reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| In darknessAny collision where the officer recorded darkness, lit or unlit. | 24.8% | 28.7% | below the national figure |
| In darkness, no street lightingThe rural lighting picture rather than the urban speeding one. | 3.1% | 6.3% | well below the national figure |
| On a wet road surfaceWet, damp or standing water at the scene. | 23.2% | 24.5% | close to the national figure |
| On snow or iceRare everywhere, and concentrated in a handful of authorities. | 0.8% | 1.4% | well below the national figure |
On the darkness share, Wirral ranks 162 of 192 authorities, counting from the highest.
The winter effect. Collisions in Wirral run 4.6% higher from November to January than from May to July — against 4.5% lower nationally. That is 297 collisions against 284.
What this does not tell you
- A share is not a rate. A high darkness share means darkness accounts for more of Wirral’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.
Wirral against similar authorities
A national rank compares Wirral 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 Wirral is 1 of 9 on casualties per mile driven, against a group median of 62.
| Authority | KSI / bn miles | Score | National rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wirral (this page) | 107.4 | 54.8 | 75 |
| Wakefield | 103.4 | 60.8 | 54 |
| Dudley | 92.5 | 47.2 | 116 |
| Tameside | 88 | 60.3 | 56 |
| Redcar and Cleveland | 62 | 28 | 175 |
| North Tyneside | 60.8 | 48.6 | 104 |
| Stockport | 58.6 | 37.3 | 153 |
| Gateshead | 54.3 | 24 | 184 |
| Bury | 51.8 | 22.6 | 187 |
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.
Wirral against its closest comparators
Wirral sits 75 of 192 nationally, and 66 of 148 within England. These are the authorities nearest to it in the table.
| # | Authority | Score | KSI / bn miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 73 | Bedford | 55.9 | 75.9 |
| 74 | Dorset | 55 | 92.2 |
| 75 | Wirral (this page) | 54.8 | 107.4 |
| 76 | Cumberland | 54.5 | 82 |
| 77 | South Tyneside | 54.4 | 67.2 |
Road risk in Wirral, answered
How dangerous are the roads in Wirral?
In the latest official DfT figures, 343 road collisions in Wirral injured or killed 419 people, 81 of them killed or seriously injured. Measured against the traffic its roads actually carry, that is 107.4 people killed or seriously injured per billion vehicle miles, against a median of 80.5 across the ranked authorities — placing Wirral 75 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 Wirral rising or falling?
Across 2021–2025, recorded collisions in Wirral were down 17.3%, with 2022 the worst year of the period at 437 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 Wirral's roads?
In Wirral there were 78 collisions involving pedestrians, 78 involving cyclists and 42 involving motorcyclists, out of 343 in total. Added together that is an involvement rate of 57.7%, 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 Wirral?
Wirral is a metropolitan borough, 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 actually changes the odds in Wirral
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Wirral’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.
Helmet camera
£50–£200
23% of collisions in Wirral involve someone on a bike. In a disputed pull-out, footage from the rider's viewpoint is what settles liability.
How it works →
Alarmed disc lock
£20–£50
Motorcyclists are in 12% of Wirral'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
23% of collisions here involve a pedestrian, and those are the cases most often argued over. Footage removes the argument.
How it works →
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More on Wirral and UK road risk
All 192 British authorities ranked
The full sortable league table, with the method behind it.
Read more →Blackspots that were never fixed
Sites with injury collisions in every one of the last five years.
Read more →UK road risk: the national picture
What the official record says about Britain's roads overall.
Read more →Need this cut differently?
Custom analysis by ward, corridor or junction. Free for campaigns and press.
Read more →Free API
Pull these figures programmatically, with provenance on every endpoint.
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