Malta Ranked Number Seven On Eurostat’s ‘Passenger Cars Per 1,000 Inhabitants’ Dataset
Eurostat, an official European Union website dedicated to statistics from around the continent, shared a dataset detailing the unit of cars per thousand residents in each European country as of 2023.
A graphic created by Paula Lago via The European Correspondent, better illustrated these rankings up to the year 2022. The top-ranker being Italy, standing at a whopping 682 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, and the lowest ranking given to Latvia, with only 409 per 1,000.
And where does Malta stand? Well, according to the statistics Malta is ranked number seven, just between Germany and Poland respectively, with 585 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. It’s crazy to think that our tiny island is up there with the ranks of some of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world.
The stat can roughly be boiled down to approximately 1 car for every 2 people, and with just 246 square kilometres of land, Malta is also up there among the countries with the highest car density in Europe, and that’s just for passenger cars alone.
These factors could contribute to significant road congestion, parking issues and of course high demand for road works and other infrastructure. Above all, the biggest negative contributor of a high vehicle density is of course pollution, both noise and air. These environmental impacts, although more worrisome for our tiny island, are an issue globally.
In fact, some commenters on the graphic’s post pointed out that the statistics are inaccurate, as it should instead exclude residents who do not fit the criteria to drive like children, people with disabilities and individuals without a license in general. But, people were quick to point out that the inclusion of each civilian is crucial to put into perspective the ratio of cars to residents, as everyone suffers the negative impacts equally.
What do you make of these statistics?
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