National statistics

TSGB 2011: Vehicles

This chapter presents statistics on the number licensed vehicles, vehicle ownership, vehicle usage, MOTs and driving tests.

From:
Department for Transport
Published
15 December 2011

Documents

Vehicles

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Vehicles and XLS tables

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Vehicles CSV tables

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Vehicles: notes and definitions

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Details

This chapter of Transport Statistics Great Britain (TSGB) presents statistics on the number licensed vehicles, vehicle ownership, vehicle usage, MOTs and driving tests.

Key points

  • The number of licensed vehicles in Great Britain has increased from about 4 million in 1950 to over 34 million in 2010.
  • The number of licensed vehicles has grown by about 3.7% a year on average from 1950 to 2010. However, it grew by 0.7% in 2008, 0.1% in 2009 and 0.5% in 2010. Aside from 1990 to 1991, the growth since 2008 has been the lowest growth period on record.
  • Over 28.2 million MOT tests were carried out in 2010/11. The vast majority of these (26.6 million) were of cars and other small passenger vehicles (up to 12 seats). The overall pass rate was remained steady at around 70% since 2000/01.
  • The proportion of households with access to car or van has risen from 14% in 1951 to 75% in 2010. Since 2002 there have been more households with access to two or more cars/vans than without any access at all.
  • The average annual mileage of four-wheeled cars has decreased from 9,700 miles in 1995/97 to 8,430 in 2010.
  • The number of car practical driving tests taken rose to by 3.6% from 1.59 million in 2009/10 to 1.65 million in 2010/11. Roughly 51 to 54% of the tests each year were taken by males.

Technical notes

Information on TSGB vehicle statistics, including the pre-release access list and related technical documentation can be found on the TSGB guidance page.

Contact us

Vehicles statistics

Email vehicles.stats@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7944 3077

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

Published 15 December 2011

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