Total number of registered motor vehicles

The number of registered motor vehicles in Great Britain is forecast to expand at a compound annual rate of 0.5% over the five years through 2023-24. The total number of motor vehicles in use rose in every year over the past two decades, including during the worst of the recession. Households and businesses hanging on to older vehicles accounted for the positive growth in the total number of vehicles on British roads for most of the period in spite of fewer new vehicle registrations. The number of registered vehicles in 2019-20 increased by 0.9% to 38.6 million, of which 31.8 million were cars. Light goods vehicles constitute the second-largest group of registered vehicles with 10.6% in 2019-20, followed by motorcycles (3.3%), other vehicles (2%) and heavy goods vehicles (1.3%). Buses and coaches accounted for just 0.4% of all registered vehicles during the year.

The number of motor vehicles expanded strongly over the two years through 2016-17, despite slower rates of growth in newly registered vehicles. In 2018-19, growth in the number of registered motor vehicles slowed, with new car registrations falling by 6.8% and light commercial vehicles also fell by 1.3%, according to SMMT figures. This was the first annual fall registered in six years and was driven by a significant decrease in diesel registrations. The decline caused a weakening of the total number of vehicles registered in the United Kingdom that continued into the following year.

The total number of vehicles fell by 2.2% in 2021-22. According to data from the Department for Transport, the number of new vehicle registrations decreased by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2020, before rising by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2021. The decline throughout 2020 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the closure of dealerships for much of the year and led to a 29.4% decline in registrations of vehicles and light commercial vehicles in 2020, according to SMMT data. Lockdown measures were eased in 2021-22, which has led to a recovery in car registrations as customers that delayed purchases in 2020-21, have returned to the market. IBISWorld estimates that the number of registered vehicles will increase by 3.5% over 2022-23, to reach 38.8 million. Customers that delayed purchases in previous years are expected to return to the market to boost the number of registered vehicles. According to SMMT data, new car registrations reached 914,241 in the first seven months of 2022, down 11.5% on the same period in 2021. However, car registrations are higher than 2022 when coronavirus pandemic-related lockdown measures reduced demand. The total number of vehicles is set to expand by 1.1% in 2023-24.