Wards Auto, The Information Center for and About the Global Auto Industry, stated back about 5 months ago that the number of cars on the road worldwide finally reached the one billion mark sometime in 2010. That comes out to one car for every seven people on the Earth. When you take into account the number of children and elderly people who do not drive, that is a huge number. Let's break these numbers down just a bit.In 2010, 35 million extra cars took to the road and China had the biggest increase with 14 million of those. China now has 78 million vehicles making it second to the United States in car ownership. China supplanted Japan for the second spot. That is one car for every 17.2 people in China. Only 5% of the population in China drives so you can imagine how much car ownership may rise in future years. The impact on oil prices will be staggering.
The United States has 239 million cars on the road which means that there is one car for every 1.3 people. If China ever grows to the same extent that the United States has they will have over 1 billion cars in China alone. Scary thought, huh?
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that the number of cars on the road will begin to accelerate, mainly because of China and will reach 2.5 billion cars on the road in the next 38 years.
