THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CARS IN GREAT BRITAIN
| Published date | 01 February 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1961.tb00151.x |
| Date | 01 February 1961 |
| Author | John F. Sleeman |
THE
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
OF
MOTOR CARS
IN
GREAT BRITAIN
Number
of
cars (thousands)
Indices
:
Cars per
1,OOO
of
the popula-
1938=100
1955=100
tion
IN
the recent growth of motor vehicles the most striking feature in
the richer countries of the world has been the rapid spread of the
private car. Although Britain, like the other countries of Western
Europe,
is
still
a long way behind the United States and Canada
in
the number of cars per head, she already has the world’s highest num-
ber of
cars
in relation to road mileage, and the rate of growth recently
has been rapid.
The increase in motor cars in Great Britain can be seen from
Table
I
:
TABLE
I
MOTOR CARS
IN
GREAT BRITAIN,
1938
TO
1959
1,944
100
55
42
I
lY3*
194.7
1,944
100
55
40
1955
3,526
181
100
71
1959
4,966
255
138
99
The total number of cars registered in Great Britain in September
1959
was
two
and a half times whatithadbeen in
1938
or in
1947,
and
nearly
40
per cent. greater than it had been only four years earlier, in
1955.
In relation
to
population, cars had gone up from about
40
per
thousand
just
before and just after the war, to about
70
in
1955
and
nearly
100
in
1959.
There is now roughly one car for every ten people,
compared with one for every three in the United States.
The distribution of car ownership
is,
however, far from even
throughout the country.
To
begin with, there are marked differences
between England, Wales and Scotland, as Table
I1
makes clear.
The
figure for Wales is appreciably below that for England, and
that
for
Scotland
is
even more markedly lower. Even in
1959
Scotland
still had
30
per cent. fewer cars
per
head than England; as we shall see
later, there are also marked differences between Northern and Southern
England.
71
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