NOTES


ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents statistics relating to vehicles which were registered at 31 January 2011 with a motor vehicle registration authority. Motor vehicle registration statistics reflect the information as recorded in registration documents.

Statistics are provided on vehicle types comprising passenger vehicles, campervans, light commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and motorcycles. Vehicle characteristic information includes make of vehicle, year of manufacture, type of fuel that the vehicle was registered as using, and Gross Vehicle Mass or Gross Combination Mass for trucks. The size of the motor vehicle fleet is also compared with the estimated resident population.


CHANGES TO THIS PUBLICATION

Change in reference period for 2011

The 2011 Motor Vehicle Census (MVC) was conducted on 31 January 2011. Over recent years, censuses have been conducted on an annual basis at 31 March with the latest occurring in 2010, ten months before the current Motor Vehicle Census. For ease of comparison with data in previous years, all percentage movements in this publication have been converted to an annual basis. The process for deriving this annual percentage change is explained in the Glossary.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


TOTAL NUMBER OF VEHICLES ON REGISTER

There were 16.4 million motor vehicles, including Motor cycles, registered in Australia for the 2011 Motor Vehicle Census (MVC). On an annual basis this is 2.3% higher than the number of registrations from 2010 and an increase of 14.5% since 2006, when there were 14.4 million vehicles registered in Australia. The average annual growth over this five-year period was 2.7%.

Type of vehicle - Census years 2006, 2010 and 2011
	2006	2010	2011	Change 06/11	Change 10/11	Average annual growth 06/11
	no.	no.	no.	%	%	%
Passenger vehicles	11 188 880	12 269 305	12 474 044	11.9	2.0	2.3
Campervans	41 520	48 504	50 653	22.8	5.3	4.2
Light commercial vehicles	2 114 333	2 460 568	2 530 630	20.4	3.4	3.8
Light rigid trucks	95 452	115 845	119 539	26.2	3.8	4.8
Heavy rigid trucks	288 094	315 433	318 223	10.8	1.1	2.1
Articulated trucks	71 680	82 436	85 965	20.7	5.2	3.8
Non-freight carrying trucks	20 293	22 533	22 656	12.1	0.7	2.3
Buses	75 375	86 367	87 883	17.2	2.1	3.2
Motor cycles	463 057	660 107	678 790	48.5	3.4	8.2
Total motor vehicles	14 358 684	16 061 098	16 368 383	14.5	2.3	2.7

In the 5 years between the 2006 and 2011 MVC, the Passenger vehicle fleet has grown by 11.9% from 11.2 million to 12.5 million. Light rigid trucks and Motor cycles were the vehicle types showing the largest growth over this time, with increases of 26.2% and 48.5% respectively. Heavy rigid trucks had the smallest increase of 10.8% over the same period.


STATES AND TERRITORIES

New South Wales had the largest share of the Australian fleet in the 2011 MVC with 4.8 million vehicles or 29.2% of all registered vehicles. Victoria had the second largest share with 4.2 million (25.6%) followed by Queensland with 3.4 million vehicles (20.8%). The Northern Territory had the smallest share with 0.1 million (0.8%) registered vehicles. These shares are comparable with the distribution of the population across states and territories.

State of Registration - Census years 2006, 2010 and 2011
	2006	2010	2011	Change 06/11(a)	Change 10/11(a)	Average annual growth 06/11(a)
	no.	no.	no.	%	%	%
New South Wales	4 268 631	4 681 471	4 778 421	12.4	2.5	2.4
Victoria	3 740 726	4 112 908	4 198 371	12.7	2.5	2.4
Queensland	2 897 867	3 358 221	3 401 932	18.0	1.6	3.4
South Australia	1 137 957	1 239 672	1 261 925	11.3	2.2	2.2
Western Australia	1 600 566	1 870 068	1 912 739	20.2	2.7	3.8
Tasmania(b)	374 846	410 210	419 009	12.2	2.6	2.3
Northern Territory	114 015	134 700	137 082	21.0	2.1	3.9
Australian Capital Territory(c)	224 076	253 848	258 904	16.1	2.4	3.0
Australia	14 358 684	16 061 098	16 368 383	14.5	2.3	2.7
(a) Percentage change movements have been converted to an annual basis. See Glossary for further information.
(b) Excludes vehicles with registration expiry less than one month before the census date.
(c) See Technical Note ACT Data regarding 2006 data.

VEHICLES AND RESIDENT POPULATION

In Australia there were 730 motor vehicles per 1,000 resident population in the 2011 MVC. This compares with 696 vehicles per 1,000 residents in 2006, an increase of 34 vehicles per 1,000 residents over this time.

Western Australia had the highest rate of all states and territories with 829 vehicles per 1,000 residents in 2011, while the Northern Territory had the lowest rate with 596 vehicles per 1,000 residents. New South Wales, which had the largest vehicle fleet at 31 January 2011 and the largest population at 30 September 2010, averaged 659 vehicles per 1,000 residents, the second lowest of all states or territories.

AVERAGE AGE OF THE FLEET

For 2011, the average age of all vehicles registered in Australia was 10.0 years for the second consecutive MVC. This is slightly newer than the 10.1 years recorded in 2006. Over this five-year period, all vehicle types except Passenger vehicles, Articulated trucks and Buses recorded a decrease in the average age. Campervans showed the largest decrease in average age, by 1.1 years, followed by Light commercial vehicles, Heavy rigid trucks and Motor cycles which all decreased by 0.4 years. Articulated trucks increased by 0.1 years over this five-year period.

TYPE OF FUEL

For the 2011 MVC, 13.4 million vehicles in Australia (82.1% of the total vehicle fleet) were registered with a petrol fuel type. This compares with the 12.5 million vehicles registered in 2006, when 87.1% of registrations were in this category.

The number of vehicles registered with diesel fuel in 2011 accounted for 14.7% (or 2.4 million vehicles) of the total fleet compared with 10.6% of vehicles in 2006.

Greater numbers of Passenger vehicles and Light commercial vehicles registered with diesel fuel were the major contributors to this increase. While the number of Passenger vehicle registrations increased by 11.9% between the 2006 and 2011, the number of Passenger vehicles registered with diesel fuel increased by 102.2%.

Over the same period Light commercial vehicle registrations in 2011 with diesel fuel have increased by 67.4%.


CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLEET

Passenger vehicles accounted for 76.2% of all vehicles registered in Australia for the 2011 MVC, down from 77.9% in 2006. All states and territories have recorded decreases in the proportion of Passenger vehicles over this time. This decrease has been offset by increases in the proportion of Light commercial vehicles and Motor cycles in all states and territories.

Light commercial vehicles accounted for 15.5% of all vehicles registered in Australia for 2011, the second highest proportion behind passenger vehicles. Since 2006, Queensland had largest percentage growth (26.6%), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (26.5%) and Western Australia (26.1%). New South Wales had the smallest growth (15.4%).

Motor cycles accounted for 4.1% of all vehicles registered in Australia for the 2011 MVC, up from 3.2% in 2006. Western Australia recording the largest percentage increase (69.5%), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (53.9%).

Rigid trucks accounted for 2.7% of the total number of vehicles registered in 2011 and 2006. Registrations of Rigid trucks with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) greater than 20 tonnes have increased by 26.2% since 2006, while registrations of Rigid trucks with a GVM of 20 tonnes or less have increased by 12.1% over the same period.

For the 2011 MVC, Articulated trucks only accounted for 0.5% of the total number of registered vehicles in Australia. From 2006 to 2011, the number of registrations of Articulated trucks with a GCM over 20 to 40 tonnes has decreased by 21.7%, while the number of Articulated trucks with GCM over 60 to 100 tonnes and greater than 100 tonnes has increased by 44.5% and 51.8% respectively.