The chart above shows the number of motor vehicles in EU states by kilometer of roads. Luxembourg and Malta are the only two states with over 100 vehicles per kilometer of road.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the most vehicles per kilometer, Luxembourg, and the state with the least, Latvia, is 136 vehicles per kilometer of road.
- Luxembourg has 13 times the number of vehicles per kilometer of road that Latvia does.
- Thirteen states have at least 50 vehicles per kilometer of road.
- The mean rate of vehicles per kilometer for the EU is 55.95 and the median 47.20.
Caveats
- Ownership data is from 2015.
- Road length data is from 2008 except for Denmark which is from 2006, and Italy and Portugal which are from 2005.
- Bulgaria is not included because it did not have complete data in the road data set.
- Total vehicles include automobiles, taxis, buses, trucks, and motorcycles of both public and private use.
Details
Eight states have a third of a kilometer or more of vehicles (assuming a conservative vehicular length of 4.5 meters per vehicle - which is pretty low considering that vans, trucks, and buses are included in the vehicle count) per kilometer of road: Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Romania.
The rate for the entire European Union (excluding Bulgaria) is 54 vehicles per kilometer of road which ranks the EU as a whole just under Croatia, tied with Slovakia, and just above Greece.
Sources
European Union Road Federation. 2011. "European Road Statistics 2011." Accessed March 12, 2018. http://www.irfnet.eu/images/stories/Statistics/2011/ERF-2011-STATS.pdf.
International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. 2018. "Vehicles in Use - OICA." Accessed January 20, 2018. http://www.oica.net/category/vehicles-in-use/.