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Wisdom > Data

How many new cars were added to our roads in 2017?

And in which regions will you find most of our vehicles?

We all know that our roads already have too many cars. But how many are they exactly? IMAGE BY FRANK SCHUENGEL

With traffic congestion now the constant thorn in our side, we like to complain that it’s because there are already too many cars on the road these days. But how many exactly? What are the actual figures?

This month, the Land Transportation Office finally made available online its annual vehicle registration report for 2017. Based on the file that we got, said report had been prepared in February but was only uploaded to the LTO website on September 3.

According to this report, a total of 10,410,814 vehicles were registered with the agency last year—of which, 2,608,389 were either bought brand-new or imported as used units. What’s remarkable is the fact that of this new-vehicle aggregate, 2,006,954 were motorcycles. And that doesn’t even include what the LTO terms as “nonconventional” (other) motorcycles.

Here’s the breakdown of the numbers according to vehicle type:

Registered vehicles in the Philippines in 2017, according to vehicle type

Now, if you want to know how many of these vehicles are private or for government or public use, the LTO has a table for that, too:

Registered vehicles in the Philippines in 2017, according to vehicle class

Finally, if you’re wondering how our vehicles are distributed throughout the country, the LTO has also provided a breakdown based on the country’s administrative regions:

Registered vehicles in the Philippines in 2017, according to region

As expected, the National Capital Region is the runaway winner with a total of 2,617,537 registered vehicles in 2017. That’s 25% of the grand total for the whole nation. Which means one in every four vehicles in the Philippines is in Metro Manila. Too bad the report doesn’t indicate how many of these vehicles are private and public, or how many are four-wheel and two-wheel.

Anyway, these numbers should serve as concrete proof that our beloved megalopolis is indeed already brimming with motor vehicles. The only question left to answer is: What shall we do about it?



Vernon B. Sarne

Vernon is the founder and editor-in-chief of VISOR. He has been an automotive journalist for 26 years. He became one by serendipity, walking into the office of a small publishing company and applying for a position he had no idea was for a local car magazine. God has watched over him throughout his humble journey. He writes the ‘Spoiler’ column.



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