In 2021, approximately **** million people in Great Britain lived in a household that owned one car. In the same year, nearly nine million people lived in a household with *** cars, an increase compared to the previous year. Ovez ** million people lived in a household with no car at all.
Data files containing detailed information about vehicles in the UK are also available, including make and model data.
Some tables have been withdrawn and replaced. The table index for this statistical series has been updated to provide a full map between the old and new numbering systems used in this page.
Tables VEH0101 and VEH1104 have not yet been revised to include the recent changes to Large Goods Vehicles (LGV) and Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) definitions for data earlier than 2023 quarter 4. This will be amended as soon as possible.
Overview
VEH0101: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689a1dddad0cbc0e27643253/veh0101.ods">Vehicles at the end of the quarter by licence status and body type: Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 154 KB)
Detailed breakdowns
VEH0103: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6846e8dcd25e6f6afd4c01d5/veh0103.ods">Licensed vehicles at the end of the year by tax class: Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 33 KB)
VEH0105: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689a1dde9c63e0ee87656a9c/veh0105.ods">Licensed vehicles at the end of the quarter by body type, fuel type, keepership (private and company) and upper and lower tier local authority: Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 16 MB)
VEH0206: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6846e8dee5a089417c806179/veh0206.ods">Licensed cars at the end of the year by VED band and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 42.3 KB)
VEH0601: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6846e8df5e92539572806176/veh0601.ods">Licensed buses and coaches at the end of the year by body type detail: Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 24.6 KB)
VEH1102: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6846e8e0e5a089417c80617b/veh1102.ods">Licensed vehicles at the end of the year by body type and keepership (private and company): Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 146 KB)
VEH1103: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689a1de1e7be62b4f0643252/veh1103.ods">Licensed vehicles at the end of the quarter by body type and fuel type: Great Britain and United Kingdom (ODS, 1010 KB)
VEH1104: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689a1de1e7be62b4f0643253/veh1104.ods">Licensed vehicles at the end of the
When asked about "Car ownership", * percent of UK respondents answer "Yes, a company car". This online survey was conducted in 2025, among ***** consumers. Looking to gain valuable insights about car owners across the globe? Check out our reports about consumers of car brands worldwide. These reports provide readers with a detailed understanding of car owners: their identities, preferences, opinions, and how to effectively engage with them.
Accessible Tables and Improved Quality
As part of the Analysis Function Reproducible Analytical Pipeline Strategy, processes to create all National Travel Survey (NTS) statistics tables have been improved to follow the principles of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP). This has resulted in improved efficiency and quality of NTS tables and therefore some historical estimates have seen very minor change, at least the fifth decimal place.
All NTS tables have also been redesigned in an accessible format where they can be used by as many people as possible, including people with an impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments or learning disabilities and deafness or impaired hearing.
If you wish to provide feedback on these changes then please contact us.
NTS0608: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce12078e33f28aae7e1f80/nts0608.ods">Pedal cycle ownership by age, aged 5 and over: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 18.3 KB)
NTS0610: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce1207bc00d93a0c7e1f7e/nts0610.ods">Motorcyclists by sex and age: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 11.2 KB)
NTS0312: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce12074e046525fa39cf89/nts0312.ods">Walks of 20 minutes or more by age and frequency: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 35.1 KB)
NTS0314: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce1207bc00d93a0c7e1f7d/nts0314.ods">Pedal cycle and motorcycle trips per rider per year: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 13.9 KB)
NTS0207: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce12071aaf41b21139cf89/nts0207.ods">Household motorcycle ownership by household car availability: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 13.6 KB)
NTS0613: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce12074e046525fa39cf8a/nts0613.ods">Trips to and from school by main mode and age: England, 1995 onwards (ODS, 28.1 KB)
NTS0614: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce120725c035a11941f659/nts0614.ods">Trips to and from school by age, trip length and main mode, aged 5 to 16: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 53.4 KB)
NTS0615: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce1207face0992fa41f65f/nts0615.ods">Usual mode of travel to school by age: England, 1995 onwards (ODS, 18.6 KB)
NTS9908: <a class="govuk-link" href
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.
We asked UK consumers about "Car ownership by make / brand" and found that ***** takes the top spot, while ******* is at the other end of the ranking.These results are based on a representative online survey conducted in 2025 among 4,615 consumers in the UK. Looking to gain valuable insights about car owners across the globe? Check out our reports about consumers of car brands worldwide. These reports provide readers with a detailed understanding of car owners: their identities, preferences, opinions, and how to effectively engage with them.
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
The census is undertaken by the Office for National Statistics every 10 years and gives us a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales. The most recent census took place in March of 2021.The census asks every household questions about the people who live there and the type of home they live in. In doing so, it helps to build a detailed snapshot of society. Information from the census helps the government and local authorities to plan and fund local services, such as education, doctors' surgeries and roads.Key census statistics for Leicester are published on the open data platform to make information accessible to local services, voluntary and community groups, and residents. There is also a dashboard published showcasing various datasets from the census allowing users to view data for Leicester and compare this with national statistics.Further information about the census and full datasets can be found on the ONS website - https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/aboutcensus/censusproductsCar availabilityThis dataset provides Census 2021 estimates on the number of cars or vans available to members of households for England and Wales. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.Definition: The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.Vehicles included:pick-ups, camper vans and motor homesvehicles that are temporarily not working vehicles that have failed their MOTvehicles owned or used by a lodgercompany cars or vans if they're available for private useVehicles not included:motorbikes, trikes, quad bikes or mobility scootersvehicles that have a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)vehicles owned or used only by a visitor vehicles that are kept at another address or not easily accessedThe number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.This dataset includes data for Leicester city and England overall.
There were around 33.2 million passenger cars in operation in the United Kingdom in 2022. UK roads have become busier since experiencing the most significant decline in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis. It remains to be seen whether the coronavirus crisis will cause a similar dent in the graph.
Car ownership per household
The majority of car owners in the UK have one car available to them. As of 2018, 53 percent of motorists had one vehicle in their household. Only one percent of respondents owned five cars or more.
Road safety The number of car drivers involved in reported road accidents in Great Britain fell to a record-low of just under 160,000 in 2019. The age group of under 16 year olds witnessed a sharp drop in the number of traffic-related fatalities in 2019. That said, all other age groups reported an increase in fatalities between 2018 and 2019.
We welcome any feedback on the structure of our data files, their usability, or any suggestions for improvements; please contact vehicles statistics.
Data tables containing aggregated information about vehicles in the UK are also available.
CSV files can be used either as a spreadsheet (using Microsoft Excel or similar spreadsheet packages) or digitally using software packages and languages (for example, R or Python).
When using as a spreadsheet, there will be no formatting, but the file can still be explored like our publication tables. Due to their size, older software might not be able to open the entire file.
df_VEH0120_GB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6895d1963080e72710b2e2cf/df_VEH0120_GB.csv">Vehicles at the end of the quarter by licence status, body type, make, generic model and model: Great Britain (CSV, 59.1 MB)
Scope: All registered vehicles in Great Britain; from 1994 Quarter 4 (end December)
Schema: BodyType, Make, GenModel, Model, Fuel, LicenceStatus, [number of vehicles; 1 column per quarter]
df_VEH0120_UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6895d276586f9c9360656a18/df_VEH0120_UK.csv">Vehicles at the end of the quarter by licence status, body type, make, generic model and model: United Kingdom (CSV, 34.9 MB)
Scope: All registered vehicles in the United Kingdom; from 2014 Quarter 3 (end September)
Schema: BodyType, Make, GenModel, Model, Fuel, LicenceStatus, [number of vehicles; 1 column per quarter]
df_VEH0160_GB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6895ef62586f9c9360656a2d/df_VEH0160_GB.csv">Vehicles registered for the first time by body type, make, generic model and model: Great Britain (CSV, 25.3 MB)
Scope: All vehicles registered for the first time in Great Britain; from 2001 Quarter 1 (January to March)
Schema: BodyType, Make, GenModel, Model, Fuel, [number of vehicles; 1 column per quarter]
df_VEH0160_UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6895f187e7be62b4f06431b1/df_VEH0160_UK.csv">Vehicles registered for the first time by body type, make, generic model and model: United Kingdom (CSV, 8.53 MB)
Scope: All vehicles registered for the first time in the United Kingdom; from 2014 Quarter 3 (July to September)
Schema: BodyType, Make, GenModel, Model, Fuel, [number of vehicles; 1 column per quarter]
In order to keep the datafile df_VEH0124 to a reasonable size, it has been split into 2 halves; 1 covering makes starting with A to M, and the other covering makes starting with N to Z.
df_VEH0124_AM: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68494acf91c75fd63dd3a3ae/df_VEH0124_AM.csv">Vehicles at the end of the year by licence status, body type, make (A to M), generic model, model, year of first use and year of manufacture: United Kingdom (CSV, 47.9 MB)
Scope: All licensed vehicles in the United Kingdom with Make starting with A to M; annually from 2014
Schema: BodyType, Make, GenModel, Model, YearFi
Changes to tables including car mileage data (NTS0901, NTS0904)
Following a user engagement exercise, the presentation of the car mileage estimates has changed for 2023, to include more car types and fuel types (subject to availability of data) and to discontinue providing a private or company car breakdown. These changes have resulted in revisions to the estimates in the backseries. Please see table notes for more details.
Previous versions of these tables (up to 2022) are available.
NTS0901: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce0f47face0992fa41f65b/nts0901.ods">Annual mileage of cars by ownership, fuel type and trip purpose: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 12.8 KB)
NTS0904: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce0f5e4e046525fa39cf7e/nts0904.ods">Annual mileage band of cars: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 14 KB)
NTS0905: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce0f6f25c035a11941f655/nts0905.ods">Average car or van occupancy and lone driver rate by trip purpose: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 18 KB)
NTS0908: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce0f89bc00d93a0c7e1f74/nts0908.ods">Where vehicle parked overnight by rural-urban classification of residence: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 14.7 KB)
National Travel Survey statistics
Email mailto:national.travelsurvey@dft.gov.uk">national.travelsurvey@dft.gov.uk
To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at https://x.com/dftstats" class="govuk-link">DfTstats.
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify households in England and Wales by tenure, by car or van availability, and by number of usual residents aged 17 or over in the household. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.
There is evidence of people incorrectly identifying their type of landlord as ”Council or local authority” or “Housing association”. You should add these two categories together when analysing data that uses this variable. Read more about this quality notice.
Area type
Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.
For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.
Coverage
Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. Data are also available in these geographic types:
Tenure of household
Whether a household owns or rents the accommodation that it occupies.
Owner-occupied accommodation can be:
Rented accommodation can be:
This information is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.
Car or van availability
The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.
Vehicles included:
Vehicles not included:
The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.
Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.
Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.
Number of people aged 17 years or over in household
The number of people in a household aged 17 years and over.
This survey depicts the share of consumers who own a car or a motor vehicle in the United Kingdom in 2017, by region. According to the survey, 82 percent of respondents from Northern Ireland own a car or a motor vehicle.
The United Kingdom had a motorization rate of *** cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 2022. That year, there were more than *** million motor vehicle sales in the United Kingdom.
This statistic shows the number of people owning cars in Great Britain from 2014 to 2020, by car variety. In 2020, * door hatchbacks remained the most common car variety in Great Britain with ***** million users. Ranked second were * door saloons at **** million users.
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
Dataset population: Households/Car or Vans
Car or van availability
The number of cars or vans that are owned, or available for use, by one or more members of a household. This includes company cars and vans that are available for private use. It does not include motorbikes or scooters, or any cars or vans belonging to visitors.
Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans were counted as having only 1. Responses indicating a number of cars or vans greater than 20 were treated as invalid and a value was imputed.
The count of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by residents of communal establishments were not counted.
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify Household Reference Persons in England and Wales by tenure by car or van availability, and by ethnic group. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.
There is evidence of people incorrectly identifying their type of landlord as ”Council or local authority” or “Housing association”. You should add these two categories together when analysing data that uses this variable. Read more about this quality notice.
Area type
Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.
For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.
Lower tier local authorities
Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.
Coverage
Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:
Tenure of household
Whether a household owns or rents the accommodation that it occupies.
Owner-occupied accommodation can be:
Rented accommodation can be:
This information is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.
Car or van availability
The number of cars or vans owned or available for use by household members.
Vehicles included:
Vehicles not included:
The number of cars or vans in an area relates only to households. Cars or vans used by communal establishment residents are not counted.
Households with 10 to 20 cars or vans are counted as having only 10.
Households with more than 20 cars or vans were treated as invalid and a value imputed.
Ethnic group
The ethnic group that the person completing the census feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance.
Respondents could choose one out of 19 tick-box response categories, including write-in response options.
Standard indexes of poverty and deprivation are rarely sensitive to how the causes and consequences of deprivation have different impacts depending upon where a person lives. More geographically minded approaches are alert to spatial variations but are also difficult to compute using desktop PCs.The aim of the ESRC sponsored project was to develop a method of spatial analysis known as 'geographically weighted regression' (GWR) to run in the high power computing environment offered by 'Grid computation' and e-social science. GWR, like many other methods of spatial analysis, is characterised by multiple repeat testing as the data are divided into geographical regions and also randomly redistributed many times to simulate the likelihood that the results obtained from the analysis are actually due to chance. Each of these tests requires computer time so, given a large dataset such as the UK Census statistics, running the analysis on a standard machine can take a long time! Fortunately, the computational grid is not standard but offers the possibility to speed up the process by running GWR's sequences of calibration, analysis and non-parametric simulation in parallel.An output is a model of the geographically varying correlates of car non-ownership fitted for the 165,665 Census Output Areas in England. Specifically, a geographically weighted regression of the relationship between the proportion of households without a car (or van) in 2001 (the dependent variable), and the following predictor variables: proportion of persons of working age unemployed; proportion of households in public housing; proportion of households that are lone parent households; proportion of persons 16 or above that are single; and proportion of persons that are white British.
This statistic represents car ownership behavior before and after becoming members of a car sharing club in London (UK) in 2017/2018. Generally, long term car sharing club members, member for longer than twelve months changed their behavior. The share of respondents who owned one car decreased from 38 percent to 21 percent. Respondents who owned two cars dropped from nine to five percent.
Accessible Tables and Improved Quality
As part of the Analysis Function Reproducible Analytical Pipeline Strategy, processes to create all National Travel Survey (NTS) statistics tables have been improved to follow the principles of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP). This has resulted in improved efficiency and quality of NTS tables and therefore some historical estimates have seen very minor change, at least the fifth decimal place.
All NTS tables have also been redesigned in an accessible format where they can be used by as many people as possible, including people with an impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments or learning disabilities and deafness or impaired hearing.
If you wish to provide feedback on these changes then please contact us.
Revision to NTS9919
On 16th April 2025, the figures in table NTS9919 have been revised and recalculated to include only day 1 of the travel diary where short walks of less than a mile are recorded (from 2017 onwards), whereas previous versions included all days. This is to more accurately capture the proportion of trips which include short walks before a surface rail stage. This revision has resulted in fewer available breakdowns than previously published due to the smaller sample sizes.
NTS9901: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11024e046525fa39cf7f/nts9901.ods">Full car driving licence holders by sex, region and rural-urban classification of residence, aged 17 and over: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 33 KB)
NTS9902: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11028e33f28aae7e1f79/nts9902.ods">Household car availability by region and rural-urban classification of residence: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 49.4 KB)
NTS9903: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11021aaf41b21139cf7e/nts9903.ods">Average number of trips by main mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence (trips per person per year): England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 104 KB)
NTS9904: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11024e046525fa39cf80/nts9904.ods">Average distance travelled by mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence (miles per person per year): England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 108 KB)
NTS9908: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce110225c035a11941f658/nts9908.ods">Trips to and from school by main mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence, aged 5 to 16: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, 73.9 KB)
NTS9910: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ce11024e046525fa39cf81/nts9910.ods">Average trip length by main mode, region and rural-urban classification of residence: England, 2002 onwards (ODS, <span class=
In 2022, according to a survey by the Department of Transport in England car ownership or regular use of a car was as high as ** percent among rental e-scooter users , followed by access of bikes at ** percent. The ownership or regular use of motorcycles and e-bikes was as low as **** percent.
In 2021, approximately **** million people in Great Britain lived in a household that owned one car. In the same year, nearly nine million people lived in a household with *** cars, an increase compared to the previous year. Ovez ** million people lived in a household with no car at all.