How Many People Drive in the UK? A Statistical Overview

Did you know that over 60% of the British population commute to work with their cars?

Yes, despite the relatively good public transport services in the UK, driving remains a dominant mode of transportation. It offers a level of convenience and flexibility that is hard to match.

It plays an important part in the daily lives of millions of people in the UK, allowing them to run errands, enjoy leisure activities, and commute to work on their own terms.

If you are wondering what percentage of the UK population drives and which demographic relies more on public transportation, keep reading.

This article will discuss the latest UK driving statistics, from active driving statistics to the broad vehicle trends that affect the future of driving. So, let’s get right to it.

Also learn: Driving statistics

General UK Drivers Statistics

68% of people in the UK drive their car to work while 11% use the railway.
A car sets the average motorist in the UK over £200,000 in their lifetime.
Motor vehicle traffic hit a record high of over 300 billion vehicle miles (bvm) in 2019.
The average person in England completed over 800 trips using both public and private modes of transport in 2022.
In Great Britain and England, buses were the most used mode of public transport.
By March 2023, public transport vehicles completed a total of 6.5 billion passenger journeys.
UK drivers travel up to 10,000 miles yearly, the equivalent of London to Sydney.
The Ford Fiesta is the most common car in the UK, with 1.5 million cars, followed by the Ford Focus, which has 1.3 million.

UK Licensed Vehicle Owner Statistics

According to the UK Department for Transport, about 40 million people in the UK hold driving licences. However, various factors, like economic conditions, policies, and lifestyle preferences, can affect the relatively stable number of people holding a driving license in the UK.

Over 70% of UK residents over the age of 17 had a driving license as of 2022, with 81% of males and 71% of females.
At the end of June 2024, there were over 40 million licensed vehicles in the UK, a 1% increase from the previous year.
Cars make up over 80% of the licensed vehicles, with 33.93 million, followed by Light goods vehicles(4.8 million), motorcycles (1.47 million), Heavy goods vehicles (0.54 million), buses and coaches (0.14 million), and other vehicles (0.87 million).
78% of households in England have at least one car, a 5% increase since 2002.
In 2022, about 35% of licensed car owners and 29% of all licensed vehicles were private females, compared to the 85.8% of licensed motorcycle owners who were male.
Compared to 1997, the percentage of licenced female car owners increased to 35.3% from 29.2%.
Despite the 40 million with licences, only about 60% of them regularly drive.
Out of the 74% of people in the UK with a driving licence,76% of White people had a licence, while 53% of Black people had a licence.
As of April 2024, there were over 300,000 private hire driving licences, a 10% increase from 2023.

UK Driving Test Statistics

Over time, the UK driving test has become harder, as drivers have to pass a theory test before the practical test.
Men outperformed women in the driving test by 7% in 2018.
Over 1.3 million theory tests were taken in 2018/2019, with about six hundred thousand passed.
According to researchers at the University of Westminster, female drivers are much safer on the road, as male drivers are twice as likely to cause accidents.
The number of automatic driving tests has increased by over 200% since 2007, with an average pass rate of 39.5%, while that of manual driving tests was 45.99%.

UK Road Safety Statistics

Over 2,500 people were killed on UK roads in 2023, making a 5% decrease compared to 2022.
Over 130,000 accident-related injuries were reported in 2023.
In 2019, the number of road accidents involving car drivers dropped to under 160,000, with the age group under 16 years seeing a drop in the quantity of traffic-related accidents.
Young drivers between the ages of 17 and 24 had the highest accident rate, often due to speeding, inexperience, or mobile phone use.
Doncaster, Bradford, and London are the cities with the highest risk of road accidents in the UK.
The UK has the third lowest road accident fatality rate per million of the population at 25 deaths per million compared to other European countries.
405 pedestrians were killed while over 6000 were seriously injured in 2023, showing that pedestrians and cyclists are vulnerable.
Failure to look properly is the leading cause of car accidents in Great Britain, contributing to 32.7% of accidents, followed by driver recklessness, with 18.7%.
In 2024, there were over 100,000 reported collisions in Great Britain, 24,960 of which resulted in fatalities or serious injuries.
Only about 6% of all car accidents in Great Britain were caused by drunk driving in 2023.

UK Motor Vehicle Traffic Statistics

The vehicle mileage in the UK increased in 2023 by over 2% from 2022 to reach 330.8 bvm.
In 2022, motor vehicle traffic recovered from the 265.9 bvm it was in 2020 to 323.8 bvm.
Vehicle traffic from taxis and cars overshadowed traffic from other types of vehicles combined with 262.9 billion vehicle miles.
Light commercial vehicles came second with 53.5 billion vehicle miles, followed by heavy goods vehicles with 17.2 bvm, motorcycles with 2.7 bvm, and buses & coaches with 2.4 bvm.
The number of trips made per person yearly declined from 1,060 in 2002 to 953 in 2019, with the average travel distance per person declining from 7,211 miles in 2003 to 6,500 in 2019.
Females in England made more trips as passengers or walking than males did in 2022.
In 2022, males made more trips as vehicle drivers and cyclists than females, with an average of about 350 trips.
People between the ages of 40 and 49 made more trips as drivers than any other age group, with an average of 521.1 trips, and they made fewer trips as passengers than any other age group.
In 2022, an average person in England made an average of 862 trips, 59% of which were made with private transport, 33% walking and cycling, and 8% using public transport.

Sources

www.gov.uk Statista National Travel Survey, UK Department of Transport