Bulgaria’s rate of passenger car ownership dropped slightly – Eurostat
The rate of passenger car ownership in Bulgaria in 2018 was 396 per 1000 inhabitants, down from the peak of 443 per 1000 in 2016, according to figures released on June 11 by European Union statistics agency Eurostat.
The 2018 figure, however, still represented a climb from the rate of 337 per 1000 inhabitants in Bulgaria in 2009, and was slightly higher than the 393 in 2017.
In 2018, there were 2 773 325 passenger cars in Bulgaria, Eurostat said.
Bulgaria did not have the lowest rate of car ownership in 2018. The lowest rates were recorded in Romania (332 cars), Latvia (369 cars) and Hungary (373 cars).
Among EU member states, Luxembourg recorded the highest “motorisation rate” with 676 passenger cars per 1 000 inhabitants in 2018.
“However, cross-border workers using company cars registered in the country may influence this figure,” the statistics agency said.
Luxembourg was followed by Italy (646 cars), Cyprus and Finland (both 629 cars).
In 2018, the highest number of registered passenger cars was recorded in Germany with 47 million cars. Thereafter followed Italy (39 million cars) and France (32 million cars).
Over the five-year period from 2014 to 2018, there was strong growth in the number of registered passenger cars in several EU countries.
The highest growth was recorded in Romania (31 per cent), followed by Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania (each 19 per cent), Hungary and Portugal (both 17 per cent) and Cyprus (15 per cent).
Several EU member states reported a large share of “old” passenger cars (20 years or older) in 2018.
The member states with the highest shares were Poland (36.5 per cent), Estonia (29.6 per cent), Finland (25.2 per cent), Romania (21.4 per cent) and Malta (20.8 per cent).
By contrast, the shares of the “youngest” passenger cars (less than two years old) were highest in Ireland (29.2 per cent), Luxembourg (23.8 per cent), Denmark (23.3 per cent) and Belgium (23.1 per cent).
The Eurostat table, however, did not have figures for the number of cars in Bulgaria less than two years old or older than 20 years.
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