New study reveals which country in the world has the most cars per capita

While the majority of the top 10 were European countries, the No 1 spot went to an island nation

Germany was in sixth place with 561 per 1,000 people having a vehicle. Getty

UK car insurance aggregator Confused.com has released the results of a new study that reveals which countries have the highest number of cars on the road per capita.

The study looks into which countries had the highest number of cars per 1,000 people based on population figures.

New Zealand took the top spot with 4.4 million cars, with a population of 4.8 million, meaning that out of 1,000 people, 912 had a vehicle. Australia was next, even though it has more than 17 million cars on the road, but a population of around 25.5 million, meaning only 673 people have a car.

Rounding out the top 10 includes European countries Italy (645), Poland (644) and Finland (632). Germany, although has 47 million cars on the road but a population of 83.7 million, was in sixth place with 561 per 1,000 people having a vehicle, followed by Austria (553), the Czech Republic (537), Portugal (535) and Spain (525) in the top 10.

The top 10 countries with the most cars per capita:

1. New Zealand
2. Australia
3. Italy
4. Poland
5. Finland
6. Germany
7. Austria
8. Czech Republic
9. Portugal
10. Spain

China ranked on top for the highest number of cars with almost 300 million registered, however, with a population of 1.4 billion, it means only around one in 203 people had a car – ranking the country in 27th place.

Fellow Asian country Singapore, known for its mass transit system, ranked at the bottom of the list with only 89 cars per 1,000 people.

Other interesting findings from the study also revealed the average age of cars around the world. New Zealand placed 29th out of 30 as the cars in the country average an age of 14.5 years, while Argentina placed last with an average car age of 17 years.

Saudi Arabia was ranked first with cars an average of 3.8 years, China second at 5.1 years and the UAE at third with 5.2 years. Saudi Arabia was also found to be the best in regards to carbon dioxide emissions as new cars are less likely to emit the gas.

More information about the study is available at confused.com