How do Australia’s speed limits compare to the rest of the world?
It’s a land of wide, open expanses, and home to some of the most isolated roads in the world, but it may surprise you that Australia’s speed limits are relatively modest compared with many other developed nations. As authorities grapple with a rising national road toll – despite safer cars and more vigilant speed enforcement than ever – a scan of speed limits around the world reveals Australia is quite conservative with its maximum postings.
What are the Australian speed limits?
Most Australian states and territories observe a maximum posted speed limit of 110km/h on highways and major arterial roads – the exception being the Northern Territory (NT) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
The former’s speed limit increases to 130km/h on account of its long, isolated stretches of bitumen, while the latter is limited to 100km/h, essentially because it isn’t home to extended sections of open road.
In urban or built-up areas, Australia generally defaults to a speed limit of 50km/h. However, many capital cities have reduced that figure to 40km/h or even 30km/h in a bid to reduce traffic and pedestrian fatalities.
How do Australian speed limits stack up?
Speed limits across the rest of the world vary significantly. From the unrestricted speed limits on German autobahns and the Isle of Man in the UK, to 80km/h maximum speed limits in countries like Greenland and Bhutan.
With the exception of the Northern Territory, Australia has the sixth-highest speed limit in the world, aligning it with countries including the US, UK, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Malaysia.
Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi has a maximum speed limit of 160km/h, while more than a dozen different countries share a maximum speed limit of either 140km/h or 130km/h – as per our table below.
What about unlimited speed limits?
The Northern Territory was home to unlimited speed limits as recently as 2016, when it was scrapped by the newly elected Labor Government.
That was despite research by the previous Country Liberal government which found that higher speed limits helped to improve fatigue behind the wheel, and brought responsibility back to motorists to drive to the conditions and their abilities.
Before then, unlimited speed limits were in place on many major NT highways up until 2007. Data shows more people were killed on NT roads in the six years (307) after a speed limit was imposed than in the six years prior (292).
Is the current strategy the correct one? That’s certainly open to debate: Australia’s road toll climbed to 1327 deaths in 2024, the fourth consecutive annual increase.
That equates to 4.8 deaths per 100,000 people, and based on the latest OECD data, that places the country 18th out of 31 nations. The nations with the three lowest rates are Norway (2.14), Sweden (2.17) and Iceland (2.39).
Speed is clearly a factor in road safety, but it isn’t the only one.
Maximum speed limits by nation *
- Unrestricted: Germany, Isle of Man (UK)
- 160km/h: Abu Dhabi
- 140km/h: Bulgaria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Texas (USA), Turkey
- 130km/h: Argentina, Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Territory (Australia)
- 120km/h: Brazil, Finland, India, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Thailand
- 110km/h: Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan, USA
- 100km/h: Columbia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Lesotho, Mali, Myanmar, Peru, the Philippines
- 90km/h: Chad, Iceland, Tajikistan, Yemen
- 80km/h or less: Bolivia, Bhutan, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Honduras, Liberia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea
*Based on figures by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
