Eritrea in Africa is home to the most dangerous roads in the world when measured by deaths per population, according to the first global road safety report by the World Health Organization.

The 2007 death toll on Eritrean roads was nearly 48 deaths per 100,000 people – the highest number in the world.

The country beat only the thinly populated Cook Islands with 45 deaths per 100,000 people. The Island has only 13,325 people. The next worse countries were Egypt (41.6) and Libya (40.5).

The safest country is the Marshall Islands, whose 59,000 inhabitants own just 2,487 vehicles and suffered just one fatal traffic accident.

The United States, which has by far the most cars, with more than 251 million vehicles between 306 million people suffered 13.9 fatalities per 100,000 people, about the same as Azerbaijan, Turkey and Sri Lanka.