If you travel on a typical day on the Tirana-Durrës highway or try to enter the capital, the idea may arise that there is a very high number of vehicles in Albania.
However, Eurostat data show that in relation to the population, Albania is among the countries with the fewest vehicles in Europe.
According to Eurostat, in 2022, there were 226 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants in Albania, ranking the country in third place with the lowest rate for this indicator, leaving behind only Kosovo (182 vehicles for 2021) and Turkey (169).
In the region, Montenegro’s residents have the highest number of vehicles (369), followed by those in Serbia (344).
Albanians have less than half the number of vehicles compared to the European Union average of 560 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.
Europe
In 2022, the average number of passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants in the EU was 560. During the decade 2012-2022, the average number increased by 14.3% (from 490 to 560 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants).
Italy had the highest number with 684 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Luxembourg (678), Finland (661), and Cyprus (658). Meanwhile, the lowest rate is in Latvia with 414 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Romania (417) and Hungary (424).
The data show that the central and eastern EU countries recorded high growth rates between 2012 and 2022.
Among the EU countries, Romania recorded the highest average annual growth rate of passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants (+86.2%; +193), followed by Croatia (+44.8%; +152), Hungary (+40.9%; +123), Slovakia (+40.1%; +135), and Estonia (+39.7%; +181).
