People and Vehicle Licensing and Ownership, 2011

Statistics on vehicle licensing in Wales includes data up to the end of 2011.

The key points from the latest release are:

• Averaged over the two years 2009 and 2010, the National Travel Survey (NTS) shows that some 21 per cent of households in Wales did not own a car, 44 per cent owned one car and 34 per cent owned two cars.
• For 2006 the Annual Population Survey showed that 24 per cent of households in Wales did not have access to a motor vehicle.  This rises to 44 per cent of workless households, 44 per cent of retired households; 38 per cent of lone parent households; 45 per cent of other, non-couple, households; and 50 per cent of households that are social or private renting.
• Averaged over the two years 2009 and 2010, the NTS suggest that some 82 per cent of men aged 17 and over had a driving licence; compared with 68 per cent of women.
• There were 66 thousand driving tests administered in Wales in 2011-12.  This is at a similar level to the previous two years, 2009-10 and 2010-11, but is 24 per cent lower than 2006-07.
• The number of disabled parking badges on issue at 31 March 2011 in Wales was 226 thousand to individuals and 1,600 to institutions, some 227 thousand in total.

A one-off survey of regular Welsh car drivers suggests that:

• They consider the main disadvantages of travelling by car are the cost, followed by traffic congestion and the expense and difficulty of parking.
• Around a half of car users have not thought about using public transport as an alternative to car travel for their regular journeys; and they use the car because, broadly, it is more convenient.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5062
E-mail: stats.transport@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

October 2013 (provisional - to be confirmed on 'Due out Soon' page)