Malta has the EU’s third highest per capita car ownership rate
Malta registered the third highest number of cars per 1,000 inhabitants in the European Union in 2016, according to new data published by Eurostat in its report ‘Passenger Cars in Europe’, which deals with personal transportation around the bloc. Using data collected from each member state, the report sheds light on car density relative to population size, the distribution of vehicle age and fuel type, and the number of new cars registered in each country.
With 615 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants, Malta ranks only below Italy (625 cars) and Luxembourg (662 cars) – a marginal improvement on 2015, when there were 634 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants. Nonetheless, the figures make for grim reading when compared to the EU average of 505 cars per 1,000 inhabitants.
The rate of car registrations shows a steady increase in the number of new vehicles on Maltese roads. Indeed, in 2016 there were 16,712 cars registered, which equates to an average of 45 new cars a day throughout the year.
The latest figures also indicate a net increase in the number of cars in Malta – 7,541 – bringing the total to 282,921.
Petrol-engine vehicles remain the most popular choice, with 66.9 per cent of new registrations falling into this category. This figure is very similar to that of the previous year, with the share of petrol-engine cars then standing at 68%. Malta ranks third in this regard as well, behind the Netherlands and Estonia respectively.
Conversely, only 87 cars running on alternative energy were registered throughout 2016, representing just 0.0052 per cent of newly-registered vehicles – a decrease in such vehicles compared to both 2014 and 2015.
The same document also shows that Malta has a very high percentage of cars which are 20 years or older (22.7%), ranking third behind Poland (33.7%) and Estonia (27.6%).
These statistics would seem to support NGOs and other groups campaigning for a new transport strategy which focuses on alternative modes of transportation, while also confirming the Maltese trend of car-dependence in personal transportation.