Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost - Erol Ozan
Welcome to the 1st episode of a new series: Nuts for Stats.
As you may know, I published some statistical posts previously, and now decided to make it a stable series.
Today we take a look at an interesting ranking about which countries have more motor vehicles per capita. This stat includes cars, buses, vans, freight, and other trucks but excludes motorcycles and other two-wheelers.
pic's source Pixabay
| Position | Country | Motor vehicles per 1000 people |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  San Marino | 1263 |
| 2 |  United States | 910 |
| 3 |  Monaco | 899 |
| 4 |  New Zealand | 774 |
| 5 |  Lichtenstein | 773 |
| 6 |  Iceland | 745 |
| 7 |  Australia | 740 |
| 8 |  Guam | 677 |
| 9 |  Luxembourg | 662 |
| 10 |  Canada | 662 |
| 11 |  Italy | 625 |
| 12 |  Malta | 615 |
| 13 |  Finland | 604 |
| 14 |  Cyprus | 595 |
| 15 |  Japan | 591 |
| 16 |  Poland | 571 |
| 17 |  Germany | 555 |
| 18 |  Austria | 550 |
| 19 |  Switzerland | 539 |
| 20 |  Bahrain | 537 |
As we can expect, in the top 20 positions, we find mostly rich and developed countries with some peculiar places like San Marino (no. 1), Monaco (no. 3), Lichtenstein (no. 5) and Luxembourg (no. 9) that can be considered Tax Havens (so there are particular reasons why they are in top positions of this ranking). Switzerland, Austria, and Germany are in a lower position than what I expected. Probably there is a little more "green awareness" and also stronger alternatives to private motor vehicles for transportation than in other countries. Also, in these countries, train transportation of goods is very stimulated (unlike in Italy), that's another reason for a lower ranking.
In the lower spots of the ranking there are other surprises like Norway (no. 26), Belgium (no. 27), Spain (no. 30), Denmark (no. 30, tied to Spain), Netherlands (no. 32), France (no. 33), UK (no. 37).
Russia is in 49th position, China is in 69th position, Turkey 66th, Brazil 68th.
Two interesting countries are Hong Kong and Singapore, 117th and 95th respectively. They are in such a low position because of the higher cost you have to pay when you choose to own a car in these two countries. There are six main costs to consider: Cost of the car, Interest cost, Road Tax, Car insurance, Parking ERP & Petrol, Servicing. Each of these costs will differ depending on the car, your profile, and usage.
Typically you have to be willing to pay more than $160,000 over 10 years to own a car in Singapore!
Is it expensive to own a car in your country?