Belgium 7th most stressful country to drive in, says report

Belgium is the seventh most stressful country to drive in with a stressful driving score of 72 out of 100, according to a guide from Confused.com.

The website, which describes itself as a comparison tool, analysed 48 countries across a range of different criteria, including quality of road infrastructure, fatal accidents per 100,000 people, number of cars per kilometre of road and the presence of speed cameras.

Taking those factors into account, each of the countries was assigned a “stressful driving score” out of 100. 

Belgium landed in the top 10 with seventh place, with the UAE, Bulgaria and Turkey taking the top three spots, respectively. 

Denmark, Finland and Japan were classified as the least stressful countries to drive in, with stressful driving scores under 28 out of 100.

It’s no secret that Belgium has its traffic woes: Brussels and Antwerp regularly find themselves ranking high on lists of European cities with the most traffic, and even took the world-wide crown in 2013.

But in this list, the UAE’s high number of speed cameras (the second highest of all countries analysed), fatal accidents (around 2,724 per 100,000 inhabitants, the most of all countries studied) and badly congested roads (552 cars per kilometre) put them in first place. 

Belgium was reported to have 4.2 fatal accidents per 100,000 inhabitants and 48.4 cars per kilometre. Its road infrastructure scored just 56.4 out of 100, much lower than the UAE’s 83.4. 

Other European countries with high stressful driving scores (at least 67 out of 100) include the Czech Republic and Poland. 

The United Kingdom ranked in 18th position, with a stressful driving score of 61.