National statistics

Vehicle licensing statistics: 2011

Information on motor vehicles in Great Britain that were licensed on the 31 December 2011, or were registered for the first time in 2011.

Documents

Vehicle licensing statistics: 2011

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Vehicle licensing statistics: 2011 tables

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If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email webmasterdft@dft.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

Statistics are derived from data held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which administers vehicle registration and licensing records in Great Britain.

In 2011:

  • 34.2 million vehicles licensed for use on the roads in Great Britain, of which 28.5 million were cars
  • between 2010 and 2011 the total vehicle stock number increased by 0.3%
  • since the recession of 2008 to 2009, the annual growth in licensed vehicles has only averaged 0.4%, lower than the 2.4% averaged between 1996 and 2007
  • just over 2.38 million vehicles were registered for the first time in Great Britain in 2011
  • newly registered cars powered by diesel has continued to rise
  • proportion of cars registered for the first time that run on diesel has tipped over the 50% mark
  • average emissions from all the licensed cars first registered from 2001 onwards was down by 1.5% from 2010 to an average of 163 g/km
  • average CO2 emissions from cars newly registered in the year fell by over 4% from 2010 to an average figure of 138 g/km

Since 2001, the average emissions of new cars has fallen by over 21%. At the end of 2011, the most common car in Great Britain was the Ford Focus (1.4 million) followed by the Ford Fiesta (1.3 million).

View this data in an interactive chart

Information on vehicle licensing statistics, including the pre-release access list is available.

Contact us

Vehicles statistics

Email vehicles.stats@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7944 3077

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

Published 12 April 2012