Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12 infographic

International Comparisons

1. Introduction

1.1 This chapter compares some statistics for Scotland with the 28 EU member countries over a mixture of years. Due to the increased EU membership over the years overall comparisons with EU-15 and EU-28 countries are made.

1.2 Due to definitional variations across countries comparisons may not be exact (see Sections 3, 4 & 5), especially where noticeable difference exist between the UK figure and the UK/GB calculated on the same basis as the figure for Scotland.

1.4 In some cases, the EU countries' figures do not all relate to the same year. (See the Notes and Definitions section, page 228). Because of such differences, the commentary in Section 2 generally does not reference the year. General trends will tend to be similar over recent years and so the impact of this should be minimal.

Key Points

  • Scotland has less road and rail network by area compared to the EU average.
  • Scotland has higher car use than the EU average but lower car ownership
  • The proportion of freight carried by road is lower than in the rest of the EU due to the higher proportion carried by pipeline in Scotland.

2. Main points

Population

2.1 Scotland has a low population: only ten of the EU-28 (Slovak Republic, Ireland, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta) have fewer people. Scotland also has a low population density (70 people per square kilometre) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 123; EU-28: 115). Only seven of the EU-28 countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden) have a lower population density than Scotland.

Road Network

2.2 For its area, Scotland has a short Motorway network (6.1 km of Motorway per thousand square kilometres), well below the overall EU figure (EU-15: 20.5; EU-28: 17.4). Six of the EU-28 countries (Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden) have a lower figure than Scotland. This does not include Latvia and Malta which have no motorway.

2.3 The total length of the Scottish road network relative to the area of the country is 13 per cent below the EU-28 average when 'other roads' and unclassified roads in Scotland are excluded (Scotland: 370 km of road per thousand square kilometres; EU-15: 446; EU-28: 428).

2.4 Scotland has a short rail network for its area (35.4 km of route per thousand square kilometres) compared with the overall EU figure (EU-15: 46.3; EU-28: 48.5). Nine of the 28 EU countries (Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and Sweden) have a lower value than Scotland. This does not include Cyprus and Malta which do not have a railway network.

Vehicles per Population

2.5 Scotland has few cars for the size of its population (468 per thousand population) compared with the EU as a whole (EU-15: 525; EU-28: 518). Nine of the EU-28 countries have lower figures than Scotland.

2.6 Scotland also has few goods vehicles relative to the size of its population (65 per thousand population) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 78; EU-28: 77). Of the EU-28, twelve countries have lower figures.

2.7 The number of new vehicle registrations in Scotland was relatively high (33 per thousand population), higher than the EU-28 average – nine of the EU-28 countries had higher rates (France, UK, Sweden, Slovenia, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg).

Distances travelled

2.8 Walking, cycling and motorcycles are excluded from the calculation of these modal shares, for consistency with the figures in the relevant table of the EU publication. That table shows just four modes (passenger cars, buses/coaches, railways and tram/metro) and gives their shares of the total for those four modes. Passenger cars account for a slightly higher percentage of the total travel by those four modes in Scotland (85.7%) than the EU as a whole (EU-15 86.9%; EU-28: 81.8%).

Air travel

2.9 Relative to the size of its population, Scotland has more international air passengers to or from the EU-28 countries (2.38 per head of the population, not counting internal UK traffic) than the overall EU figure (EU-15: 2.46; EU-28: 2.17).

Road Fatalities

2.10 Scotland's number of road deaths per million population is well below the overall EU average (Scotland: 30; EU-15: 43; EU-28: 49). Of the EU-28 countries, only Denmark, Ireland and the UK had a lower figures.

Freight

2.11 For freight transport, road has a low modal share in Scotland (62.7%) compared with the overall EU figure (EU-15: 73.3%; EU-28: 73.6%). The modal share of pipelines (25.0%) was higher than in any EU country. The modal shares of rail and inland waterways in Scotland are both below the overall figures for the EU-28.

3.1 Table Comparisons

  • Rates (per thousand population or per thousand square km) are based on the countries' areas and populations presented in EU Energy and Transport in Figures. As figures are rounded to a few decimal places, results won't be as precise as they using exact figures. Therefore figures should be regarded as broad indicators;
  • Country figures may not be on exactly the basis due to the availability of data. There is plenty of scope for differences in interpretation or definition (e.g. should the surface area of inland lochs and lakes be included when calculating a country's area?);
  • Scotland figures may differ from those elsewhere in Scottish Transport Statistics in order to provide Scottish figures on the same basis as the GB or UK figures given in the final two columns.
  • GB and UK figures are on the same basis as the figures for Scotland. The closer that these figures are to the UK (or GB) figures from EU Energy and Transport in Figures (columns to the left of the EU-15 and EU-28), the closer that the Scottish basis is to the EU countries.
  • Many of the Scotland figures are derived from GB-wide surveys conducted by the Department for Transport and UK figures may not be as readily available. As Northern Ireland may account for a small percentage of a UK figure, there is likely to be little difference between figures for GB and UK, particularly for rates.
  • Some of the Scotland, GB and/or UK figures appear with more significant digits than the figures for the EU countries, increasing the precision of the rates.

 

Table 12.1: International comparisons
EU countries from EU Energy and Transport in Figures(2017 edition) Scotland/ GB/ UK figures ( # )
Year of data (most countries) Other year/issues (some countries) EU publication table Scottish figure (same or a similar basis) ( # ) Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Germany Denmark Estonia Greece (+) Spain Finland France Croatia Hungary Ireland Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Latvia Malta (+) Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Sweden Slovenia Slovak Republic UK EU-28 EU-15 Scotland GB (same basis) UK (same basis)
SCOT AT BE BG CY CZ DE DK EE EL ES FI FR HR HU IE IT LT LU LV MT NL PL PT RO SE SI SK UK EU-28 EU-15 SCOT GB UK
General data
Population (at 1 Jan)
million 2019 1.1 5.46 8.86 11.46 7.00 0.88 10.65 83.02 5.81 1.33 10.73 46.94 5.52 67.01 4.08 9.77 4.90 60.36 2.79 0.61 1.92 0.49 17.28 37.97 10.28 19.41 10.23 2.08 5.45 66.65 513.47 409.65 5.46 64.90 66.44
Area
'000 sq km 1.1 78.0 83.9 30.5 111.0 9.3 78.9 357.1 43.1 45.2 132.0 506.0 338.4 633.1 56.6 93.0 70.3 301.3 65.3 2.6 64.6 0.3 41.5 312.69 92.1 238.4 450.3 20.3 49.0 243.8 4,470.58 3326.1 78.0 229.0 243.8
Population density (at 1 Jan)
people per sq km 2019 calc'd 70 106 375 63 95 135 232 135 29 81 93 16 106 72 105 70 200 43 237 30 1563 416 121 112 81 23 103 111 273 115 123 70 283 272
Infrastructure and vehicles
Motorways
km 2018 2.5.1 476 1,749 1,763 757 257 1,252 13,141 1,329 154 2,098 15,585 926 11,671 1,310 1,982 916 6,943 324 165 - - 2,756 1,637 3,065 823 2,132 623 482 3,857 77,696 68,095 476 3,723 3,838
km per '000 sq km 2018 calc'd 6.1 20.8 57.8 6.8 27.8 15.9 36.8 30.8 3.4 15.9 30.8 2.7 18.4 23.1 21.3 13.0 23.0 5.0 63.8 - - 66.4 5.2 33.3 3.5 4.7 30.7 9.8 15.8 17.4 20.5 6.1 16.3 15.7
All roads ( @ )
'000 km 2018 Excluding Other roads (U roads) 2.5.2 28.8 36.3 16.3 7.7 8.1 55.7 229.8 74.8 16.6 42.3 165.6 26.9 399.6 17.9 32.1 18.4 183.0 21.6 2.9 7.1 0.5 13.2 172.9 14.3 52.8 172.9 19.9 18.0 86.8 1,914 1,483 28.8 167.3 177.4
km per '000 sq km 2018 calc'd 370 432 535 69 871 707 644 1,735 367 320 327 80 631 316 345 262 607 330 1,119 110 1,646 317 553 155 222 384 982 368 356 428 446 370 731 728
Railways
km 2018 2.5.3 2,758 4,953 3,602 4,030 9,406 39,299 2,519 1,033 2,292 15,893 5,925 27,594 2,605 7,752 2,045 16,781 1,911 275 1,860 - 3,220 18,536 2,546 10,765 10,906 1,209 3,627 16,294 216,878 154,144 2,758 15,847 16,187
km per '000 sq km 2018 calc'd 35.4 59.0 118.0 36.3 - 119.3 110.0 58.4 22.8 17.4 31.4 17.5 43.6 46.0 83.3 29.1 55.7 29.3 106.3 28.8 - 77.5 59.3 27.6 45.2 24.2 59.6 74.0 66.8 48.5 46.3 35.4 69.2 66.4
Passenger cars
million 2018 2.6.2 2.49 4.98 2.80 2.77 0.55 5.75 47.10 2.59 0.75 5.41 24.07 3.49 32.03 1.67 3.64 2.13 39.02 1.43 0.42 0.69 0.30 8.53 23.43 5.28 6.45 4.87 1.14 2.32 32.49 266.12 215.22 2.49 31.52 32.5
per 1,000 pop'n 2018 calc'd 468 562 245 396 629 540 567 447 563 504 513 633 478 409 373 434 646 512 676 361 608 494 617 514 332 476 549 426 488 518 525 468 486 489
Powered two wheelers ( $ )
thousands 2018 02 & '04 2.6.5 72 847 649 190 40 1,132 4,439 199 55 1,610 5,393 614 3,034 157 176 40 9,355 45 31 56 27 1,896 2,853 616 136 674 131 140 1,265 35,801 30,662 72 1,243 1,265
Goods vehicles
thousands 2018 2.6.4 344 495 920 438 111 711 3,368 432 122 1,359 5,207 627 6,948 181 581 355 4,314 126 45 89 49 1,058 3,758 1,370 1,034 656 110 325 4,652 39,441 31,806 344 4,510 4,652
per 1,000 pop'n 2018 calc'd 65 56 80 63 127 67 41 74 92 127 111 114 104 45 59 72 71 45 73 46 99 61 99 133 53 64 53 60 70 77 78 65 69 70
New registrations of passenger cars
thousands 2019 2.6.6 178 329 550 35 12 250 3,607 226 27 114 1,258 114 2,214 63 158 117 1,916 46 55 18 8 446 556 224 162 356 73 102 2,311 15,348 13,839 178 2,023 2,057
per 1,000 pop'n 2019 calc'd 33 37 48 5 14 23 43 39 20 11 27 21 33 15 16 24 32 17 90 9 16 26 15 22 8 35 35 19 35 30 34 33 31 31
Passenger transport &
Distance travelled (kilometres per person per year)
Passenger cars 2018 2.3.4 * & 8,557 8,903 9,415 8,120 7,868 7,349 11,115 10,505 10,113 9,626 7,299 12,117 11,312 6,234 6,540 11,834 11,952 10,723 13,013 7,887 5,617 8,422 5,593 9,276 5,315 11,462 13,312 5,229 10,151 9,595 10,409 8,557 8,684
Powered two-wheelers 2002 prev. ** 55 198 100 n/a n/a n/a 217 144 n/a 2,013 334 171 201 n/a n/a 93 1,188 n/a 130 n/a n/a 55 n/a 754 n/a 111 n/a n/a 85 n/a 405 55 58
Buses and coaches 2018 2.3.5 * & 651 1,163 1,186 1,402 1,834 1,708 755 1,230 2,113 1,913 690 1,451 860 936 1,930 2,174 1,702 1,011 1,944 1,115 1,194 306 910 770 1,021 987 1,815 1,146 555 998 946 651 565
Tram / metro 2018 2.3.6 * & 0 815 94 154 0 1,012 213 61 104 711 187 129 161 140 277 66 114 0 319 66 0 61 30 114 0 270 0 52 212 190 197 0 117
Railways (excl. t/m) 2018 2.3.7 * & 778 1,497 940 209 0 963 1,185 1,072 316 103 609 823 1,451 182 795 472 917 126 736 323 0 1,100 554 444 286 1,339 275 697 1,052 477 424 778 779
Cycling 2001 prev. ** 56 136 322 n/a n/a n/a 291 936 n/a 76 20 251 75 n/a n/a 184 154 n/a 23 n/a n/a 848 n/a 29 n/a 271 n/a n/a 75 n/a 186 56 67
Walking 2001 prev. ** 288 419 380 n/a n/a n/a 372 431 n/a 389 368 386 404 n/a n/a 368 410 n/a 457 n/a n/a 377 n/a 342 n/a 383 n/a n/a 355 n/a 382 288 286
Total these modes calc'd 10,385 13,131 12,437 9,886 9,702 11,032 14,147 14,378 12,646 14,832 9,507 15,328 14,465 7,492 9,541 15,190 16,437 11,859 16,622 9,389 6,811 11,169 7,087 11,730 6,621 14,822 15,402 7,123 12,484 11,260 12,949 10,385 10,557
Modal shares &(% of total pass-kms for specified modes)
Passenger cars 2018 As distance travelled 2.3.3 (^) 85.7 8.0 75.4 89.6 94.2 59.4 30.4 33.2 99.6 36.4 59.9 67.6 67.3 92.8 50.7 82.3 82.1 94.7 99.8 95.7 93.2 37.7 70.7 94.0 73.6 52.0 96.0 91.8 84.8 81.8 86.9 85.7 85.6
Bus and coach 2018 2.3.3 6.5 30.8 13.0 8.3 5.8 18.8 24.4 34.7 0.3 56.0 18.6 19.7 11.4 5.3 31.7 14.2 11.2 4.7 0.2 3.2 6.8 13.0 16.9 3.5 15.4 18.2 3.5 4.9 4.6 8.5 7.9 6.5 5.6
Railways (excl. t/m) 2018 2.3.3 7.8 39.6 10.3 1.2 - 10.6 38.3 30.3 0.0 3.0 16.5 11.1 19.2 1.0 13.1 3.1 6.0 0.6 0.1 0.9 - 46.7 10.3 2.0 4.3 24.8 0.5 3.0 8.8 7.9 3.5 7.8 7.7
Tram / metro 2018 2.3.3 0.0 21.6 1.3 0.9 - 11.1 6.9 1.7 0.0 4.6 5.1 1.6 2.1 0.8 4.6 0.4 0.7 - 0.0 0.2 - 2.6 2.1 0.5 6.7 5.0 - 0.2 1.8 1.7 1.6 0.0 1.2
Total pass km these modes 2018 calc'd 9,986 12,378 11,635 9,886 9,702 11,032 13,267 12,867 12,646 12,353 8,785 14,520 13,784 7,492 9,541 14,545 14,685 11,859 15,693 9,389 6,811 9,888 7,087 10,605 6,621 14,058 15,402 7,123 11,969 11,260 11,977 9,986 10,145
International air passenger traffic between EU countries (arrivals plus departures)
million 2017 2.4.1*** 12.65 20.09 24.52 8.79 6.81 11.45 141.73 24.68 2.12 41.66 179.92 15.24 99.60 7.40 10.61 28.80 116.81 4.00 3.22 4.42 5.50 48.37 30.25 39.11 15.71 31.34 1.82 1.01 188.61 1113.56 1,003.69 12.65 164.24
per head of pop'n 2017 calc'd 2.38 2.27 2.14 1.26 7.78 1.08 1.71 4.25 1.60 3.88 3.83 2.76 1.49 1.82 1.09 5.87 1.94 1.43 5.24 2.30 11.13 2.80 0.80 3.81 0.81 3.06 0.87 0.19 2.83 2.17 2.45 2.37 2.47
Road fatalities
number 2018 2.7.1 161 409 604 610 49 656 3,275 171 67 700 1,806 239 3,246 317 633 141 3,334 173 36 150 18 598 2,900 700 1,867 324 91 260 1,839 25,213 17,422 161 1,785 1,840
per million pop'n 2018 calc'd 30 46 53 87 56 62 39 29 51 65 38 43 48 78 65 29 55 62 59 78 36 35 76 68 96 32 44 48 28 49 43 30 28 28
Freight transport: modal shares (Thousand million tonne-kms)
Road 2018 2.2.4c 14.6 25.8 32.7 27.0 0.9 41.1 316.8 15.0 5.8 29.3 239.0 28.3 173.3 12.6 37.9 11.6 124.9 43.6 6.8 15.0 0.3 68.9 315.9 33.0 58.8 43.5 22.2 35.6 159.1 1,925 1,308 14.6 152.2
Rail 2018 2.2.5 2.6 22.0 7.3 3.8 - 16.6 124.6 2.6 2.6 0.4 10.7 11.2 32.0 2.7 10.6 0.1 22.1 16.9 0.2 17.9 - 7.0 59.4 2.8 13.1 23.4 5.2 8.4 17.2 441 283 2.6 17.2
Inland waterway 2018 2.2.6 0.3 1.5 11 4.9 - 0 47 - - - - 0.8 7.3 0.678 1.6 - 0.1 - 0 - - 47 0.1 - 12.3 0 - 0.8 0.1 136 115 0.3 0.1
Pipeline 2018 2.2.7 5.8 8.6 1.0 0.7 - 2.1 17.2 2.0 - 0.0 9.9 - 12.4 2.0 2.5 - 10.3 0.3 - 1.1 - 5.5 21.3 0.4 1.1 - - 4.8 10.0 113 78 5.8 4.8
Total these modes 2018 calc'd 23.3 57.8 52.3 36.3 1 59.8 505.5 19.6 8 29.7 259.6 40 225.1 18.0 52.6 12 157.4 60.8 7 34.0 0 128.7 396.7 36.2 85.2 67 27 49.5 186.4 2,614 1,784 23.3 174.3
Freight transport: modal shares (% of total tonne-kms)
Road 2018 2.2.4c * 62.7 44.6 62.5 74.2 100.0 68.7 62.7 76.6 69.1 98.5 92.1 70.2 77.0 70.0 72.1 99.2 79.4 71.7 94.1 44.2 100.0 53.5 79.6 91.1 69.0 65.0 81.2 71.9 85.4 73.6 73.3 62.7 87.3
Rail 2018 2.2.5 * 11.2 38.0 13.9 10.5 - 27.7 24.7 13.2 30.9 1.4 4.1 27.7 14.2 15.2 20.1 0.8 14.0 27.8 3.1 52.6 - 5.5 15.0 7.6 15.4 34.9 18.8 16.9 9.2 16.9 15.9 11.2 9.9
Inland waterway 2018 2.2.6 * 1.1 2.6 21.7 13.4 - 0.0 9.3 - - - - 2.1 3.2 3.8 3.1 - 0.0 - 2.8 - - 36.7 0.0 - 14.4 0.0 - 1.6 0.0 5.2 6.5 1.1 0.1
Pipeline 2018 2.2.7 * 25.0 14.8 1.9 1.8 - 3.5 3.4 10.2 - 0.1 3.8 - 5.5 11.0 4.7 - 6.6 0.5 - 3.3 - 4.3 5.4 1.2 1.3 - - 9.7 5.3 4.3 4.3 25.0 2.7

( # ) These are the nearest available figures for Scotland, and comparable figures for GB or UK as a whole - information on sources is given in the text. These may be on a different basis from other countries.

( + ) All roads data relates to the end of 2005, except for motorway estimate.

( @ ) The definitions of road types vary from country to country. Some countries' figures may include the lengths of some roads which do not have a hard surface.

( $ ) The notes on the sources of the statistics explain why there appears to be a large inconsistency between the EU publication's figure for the UK and the (DfT) figure for GB.

(^) UK figure is for GB only.

( * ) Calculated from the figures in that table, which gives the total number of passenger/tonne-kilometres for the country as a whole (in 100/1000 millions).

(&) National Travel Survey data is only collected for England now. Figures for Scotland and GB are for the last time they were available in 2012.

( ** ) As shown in (or as calculated from figures in) a previous edition - the 2012 edition does not provide any figures for powered two-wheelers, cycling or walking.

( *** ) Data calculated by adding together the total number of journeys across each row in Table 2.4.1

n/a or 0 In general, n/a is used where a figure is not available, and 0 is used where a figure is nil. However, n/a may be treated as if it were 0 for the purpose of some calculations.

 

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