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Number of Cars in the UK 2025

Because cars are racking up fewer miles each year and able to stay on the road longer than ever before (the average age of cars in the UK has risen to 8.6 years old), there are more cars on the road now than ever before. Below we summarize UK car licensing statistics including car ownership for typical UK households.

How Many Cars are Registered in the UK?

According to NimbleFins analysis of data from the Department of Transport, there were 32,888,476 cars licensed in Great Britain at the end of Q2 2024 (and 33,935,937 in the UK). If you think roads are significantly more crowded now than there were a generation ago, you're absolutely right. Over the past 30 years, the number of cars in GB has risen 55%. If growth continues at the same pace, we could have 45 million cars on British roads by 2045.

Back in 2020 the number of cars dropped (by 0.6%)—while this is likely related to the pandemic, it is startling because looking back on 30 years worth of data, 2020 was the only year that the number of registered cars decreased.

Number of Cars by YearGreat BritainUnited Kingdom
2024 (Q2)32,888,47633,935,937
202332,694,77433,579,946
202232,169,93233,187,308
202131,878,62432,889,462
202031,695,98832,697,408
201931,888,44832,884,320
201831,517,59732,493,258
201731,200,18232,159,943
201630,850,44031,792,259
201530,250,29431,170,701
201429,611,48930,513,268
201329,140,937data n/a before 2014
201228,722,453
201128,467,289
201028,420,877
200928,246,470
200828,160,702
200728,000,264
200627,609,171
200527,520,398
200427,028,099
200326,240,404
200225,781,931
200125,125,867
200024,405,549
199923,974,937
199823,293,332
199722,831,698
199622,237,538
199521,394,103
199421,199,203
Chart showing the number of cars in Great Britain 1994 to 2024
The number of cars in Great Britain continues to rise steadily, except for a small drop in 2020

Average Number of Cars per Household UK

In 2023, households in England had an average of 1.20 cars. However if we exclude London (the area with the lowest rate of vehicle ownership) then the typical English household had 1.29 cars. In London, households had 0.73 cars, meaning on average not every household has a car. Households in the East have the highest rate of car ownership, with an average of 1.40 cars per household. (Note: "Cars" includes vans for this dataset.)

The biggest decrease in car ownership per household has occurred in London. In the 20 years from 2003 to 2023, the number of cars per household in London dropped 11%, from 0.82 to 0.73.

The biggest increase in car ownership per household was in the North East, where the number of cars per household grew 19% from 0.86 in 2003 to 1.02 in 2023.

Area20032023Percentage Change 2003 - 2023
East of England1.301.408%
South West1.241.3812%
South East1.201.3815%
West Midlands1.261.335%
Yorkshire and the Humber1.151.238%
East Midlands1.051.2316%
North West0.991.1517%
North East0.861.0219%
London0.820.73-11%
England1.101.4027%
England excluding London1.161.2912%
Chart showing the number of cars English households by area 2023
The number of cars in English households

How Many Households Don't Have a Car?

In England overall, 22.4% of households don't have a car. This number is a bit skewed by London, where 42% of households have no car. If we consider households outside of London then 19% don't have a car. In other words, 1 in 5 households outside of London don't drive. The East, South West and South East have the highest rates of car ownership, with around 85% of households having at least one car or van in these areas.

Proportion of Households with No Car/Van
East of England14.7%
South West15.1%
South East15.9%
Yorkshire and the Humber18.4%
West Midlands19.3%
East Midlands20.7%
North West23.9%
North East31.4%
London42.0%
England excluding London19.0%
England22.4%
Chart showing the households in England with no car
Around 22% of households in England have no car or van

Households without a car generally rely on public transportation to get around, enabling them to save hundreds or thousands of pounds a year on car-related expenses like car insurance.

Note: for purposes of this section, references to "car" include both cars and vans.

Number of Cars by Fuel Type

By the end of June 2024, petrol and diesel cars still dominated British roads. In fact, 59% of cars on the road were petrol and 33% were diesel. In terms of real numbers, there were 19,259,147 petrol cars and 10,958,721 diesel cars registered in the UK in mid 2024. While the number of petrol cars has risen, there are 8% fewer diesel cars on the road now compared to two years ago (equivalent to just under 1 million cars).

How about electric or plug-in hybrid electric cars? In mid 2024 there were 6.5 million EVs in the UK, an 18X increase since 2014. In June 2024, 11% of cars in the UK were fully or partially fueled by electric power. Hybrid electrics are the most popular, with 1.7 million on the road in 2024, versus 1.1 million fully electric, zero em=mission cars.

Number of Cars in the UK by Fuel TypeJune 2024
Petrol19,259,147
Diesel10,958,721
Hybrid electric (petrol)1,877,761
Battery electric1,089,220
Plug-in hybrid electric (petrol)593,157
Hybrid electric (diesel)108,439
Gas [note 4]28,642
Plug-in hybrid electric (diesel)10,837
Range extended electric9,646
Total32,889,462
Chart showing the number of cars in the UK by fuel type: petrol, diesel, electric, hybrid, etc.

FAQs

There were 33,935,937 cars registered in the UK in mid 2024 and 32,888,476 in GB. The number of cars in the UK rose 3.2% in just the 5 years from 2019 to 2024.

There are 2,612,100 cars registered in London in June 2024. The number of cars in London rose 3.5% in the 20 years between 2004 and 2024.

There are 1.20 cars per household in England.

There are 0.73 cars per household in London.

There is no limit on how many cars a household is allowed in the UK. That said, some areas (e.g., London boroughs) impose a limit on the number of residential parking permits you can buy. So if you don't have off-street parking (e.g., a driveway) you may be limited by the residential parking permit cap.

Source

Department for Transport

Comments

The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

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