Friday 9 May 2014

Facts and Figures: Just how many cars do Americans own?

According to the most recent figures released by the World Bank, the number of "passenger cars" owned by Americans is LESS than in many European countries, as well as less than in Japan.
USA 401
Japan 455
UK 454
Switzerland 526
Austria 536
Netherlands 471
France 482
Germany 531
Greece 460
(the numbers are expressed as "passenger cars" per 1000 population.
Yet our intuitive answer to such a question would be that the USA has more cars per head than any other country of a significant size (I am ruling out tiny places like Monaco and suchlike here, because they do not reflect the conditions of a "normal" country, and very few folks live in them anyway).
How can this be?