Volvo study finds 88% reduction in injury risk for female drivers over five decades

Volvo Cars has released new research showing how improvements in vehicle safety have reduced injury risks for both men and women over the past five decades.

According to the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, the findings show that the Swedish carmaker has provided comparable levels of protection for male and female occupants since the 1970s, challenging the long-standing concern that conventional vehicle safety design has offered less protection to women.

Injury risk down by 88% for women

The study compared Volvo models from 2010–2019 with those built between 1970 and 1979. It found that the overall risk of injury to drivers had fallen by 79%.

For female drivers, the reduction was even greater, at 88%. The findings indicate that injury risks for women in newer Volvo models have fallen to levels comparable with those of male drivers.

The research also examined rear-seat safety. It found that passengers wearing seatbelts in the rear can receive a similar level of protection to those in the front, and in some crash scenarios, even better protection.

These findings reflect Volvo's long-running work on rear-seat safety, an area where regulatory requirements have historically been less demanding than those for front-seat occupants.

Over 50,000 real-world crashes studied

Åsa Haglund, Head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, said the automotive industry has not always provided the same level of protection for every occupant. Volvo has sought to address this by studying how people are injured in real accidents, rather than relying solely on standardised crash tests.

Since 1970, Volvo has collected data from more than 50,000 real-world crashes involving over 80,000 occupants.

The company uses this information through its Circle of Life safety development process, feeding findings from actual accidents into vehicle design, testing and production.

While conventional crash testing has traditionally relied on standardised crash test dummies, Volvo also considers differences in occupants' sex, height, body shape and weight when developing its safety systems.

In 2019, Volvo launched its E.V.A. (Equal Vehicles for All) initiative, making more than 50 years of safety research freely available through a digital library. The data can be accessed by other car manufacturers and researchers to support further improvements in vehicle safety.

What did the study cover?

The research was led by Dr Lotta Jakobsson and engineer Thomas Broberg of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre and presented as part of the 2026 International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV 2026).

It examined a range of real-world crashes, including frontal, side and rear impacts, rollovers, run-off-road incidents and collisions involving multiple vehicles.

The analysis focused on belted occupants aged 13 and above, looking at injuries such as fractures and concussions, including those classified as moderately life-threatening.

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