The latest (published yesterday) DVLA figures for licensed vehicles make very interesting reading. They show that the number of vehicles on Britain’s roads has reached yet another all-time high. In fact the number of licensed vehicles has increased in every year since World War II except 1991.
The DVLA points out that the rise of the ‘female registered keeper’ has increased by more than two-thirds since 1994. This would tally with the RAC Foundation’s On the Move report published in December which highlighted the increasing number of women drivers and the growing mileage done by women, products of more females in the workplace and the trend for marrying later and having children at a later age.
It also reveals that the number of buses and coaches has fallen steadily over recent years and there are now 7% fewer than at the peak in 2008.
Another illuminating detail is the amount of used vehicles which change hands each year or in the language of the DVLA see a “transfer of keepership”. Clearly the assumption must be that the majority of these are second-hand car sales.
This is the list of summary results from the DVLA publication:
“ At the end of 2012 there were 34.5 million vehicles licensed for use on the roads in Great Britain, of which 28.7 million (83 per cent) were cars.
“Between 2011 and 2012 the total vehicle stock increased by 0.9 per cent. Since the recession of 2008-09 the annual growth in licensed vehicles has slowed but not stopped, increasing by an average of 0.5 per cent per year since 2008, compared with an average of 2.4 per cent a year between 1996 and 2007.
“2.47 million vehicles were registered for the first time in Great Britain in 2012, 3.7 per cent up on the previous year.
“The number of newly registered cars powered by diesel has continued to rise, exceeding 1 million for the first time in 2012. Just over 50 per cent of new cars were diesels, 48 per cent petrol and 1.4 per cent alternatively fuelled vehicles.
“The average CO2 emissions of cars newly registered in 2012 fell to 133 grams per kilometre. This is 3.8 per cent down on 2011 and 25 per cent lower than in 2001, when emissions-based banding of Vehicle Excise Duty for cars began.
“The number of private cars with a female registered keeper has increased by 70 per cent since 1994. In 2012, about 40 per cent of privately registered cars were registered with a female keeper.
“At the end of 2012, the most common car in Great Britain remained the Ford Focus (1.4 million), followed by the Ford Fiesta (1.3 million). The Ford Fiesta had most new registrations, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Focus.”
[…] If you are saying the number of independent fuel retail sites have gone down I would certainly agree with that. Time was almost every corner garage had a pump round the side for customers to fill up and people had monthly fuel accounts- days long gone. However despite the increased fuel efficiency of modern cars the overall UK car population must have increased markedly over the last ten years meaning its the big chains/supermarkets that are selling more fuel albeit from fewer outlets? Number of vehicles in UK hits new high. | RAC Foundation Blog […]