User guide – International comparisons

User guide – International comparisons

Notes and definitions

Scotland, UK & GB

In general, notes on and definitions of the figures for Scotland (and, by implication, the figures on the same basis for the UK or GB as a whole) appear in the relevant chapters. Therefore, this section covers only matters which are not dealt with there.

Population, area and population density:

The population figures for GB and UK are mid-2019 estimates (NB: the EU publication's figures are for 1 January 2019) based on Office for National Statistics release (published in June 2020), available at https://bit.ly/2KXOxkd Scottish figures are taken directly from the General Registry Office of Scotland.

Areas figures relate to 2008 (no year is specified for the EU publication's figures) taken from Table 1.1 of the 2010 edition of the Annual Abstract of Statistics. Population densities were calculated by the Scottish Government using these area estimates.

Motorways

The figures for Scotland and for GB are for 2018 (the same year as most of the EU figures). They were taken from Table RDL0201 of DfT's road lengths statistics publication. The DfT's figure for Scotland was used in this table. As explained in paragraph 5.5 below the methodology used by DfT means that the figure for the length of motorways in Scotland (excluding slip roads) differs slightly from Table 12.5.1).

All roads

The figures for Scotland and for GB relate to 2018 (the same year as most of the EU figures), taken from Table RDL0201 of DfT's road lengths statistics. The DfT's figure for Scotland was used in this table which differs from the road length figure in Table 4.1, due to the DfT using a Geographical Information System (GIS) and Ordnance Survey data to produce estimates. Whereas (as explained in the notes to Chapter 4), most of the figures in Table 4.1 are produced from annual returns made by local authorities.

Some countries (Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania) did not have information for 'other roads' in the latest EU publication. Therefore the total road length figure for all countries excludes 'other roads'. In the case of Scotland and the UK, 'Unclassified roads' have been excluded.

Railways

The figures are for the route length at the end of the financial year 2018/19 (the EU figures are for 2018). The figure for Scotland is from Table 7.14 of this publication; the GB figure was taken from Table TSGB0601 of TSGB 2019.

Passenger cars

Passenger cars figures for Scotland and GB are for 2018 (most EU figures are for 2018). They are taken from Table TSGB0903 of DfT's Transport Statistics Great Britain 2019 edition.

Powered two wheelers

The figures for Scotland and GB are for 2018 (the same year as most of the EU figures). They are taken from Table TSGB0903 of DfT's Transport Statistics Great Britain 2019 edition, which includes figures for motorcycles, scooters and mopeds and based on numbers of vehicles licensed at 31st December. The EU publication's figure (for the UK) is lower than the DfT figure for GB due to different methodologies. EU figures are based on national sources and definitions may vary.

Goods vehicles

The figures for Scotland and GB are for 2018 (the same year as most of the EU figures). The Scottish figure is taken from Table 1.2 of this publication, and the GB figure is taken from Table TSGB0903 of DfT's Transport Statistics Great Britain 2019 edition. They are the totals of the figures for the body types light goods and goods (the latter being heavy goods vehicles). The result of using the body type figures is slightly different from that which would have been obtained had taxation group figures been used.

New registrations of passenger cars

The GB and Scotland figures are for new registrations of all vehicles and are for 2019 (the same year as most of the EU figures). They are taken from Table VEH0152 of DfT's Vehicle Licensing Statistics.

Passenger transport - distance travelled and modal shares

The figures for Scotland and GB are for the two year period 2011/2012 (the EU figures are for 2018). Following the increase in its sample size with effect from 2002, the National Travel Survey can provide some figures for a single year for Scotland, but figures for the two year period should be less susceptible to sampling fluctuations. The figures for Scotland are taken from STS 2013 Table 11.2 and converted from miles into kilometres. The GB figures for 2011/2012 were calculated by simply averaging the figures from 2011 and 2012 for each relevant mode of transport shown in Table NTS0305 of DfT's National Travel Survey: 2012 bulletin, and converting the result from miles into kilometres.

The NTS figures relate to the mode of travel, not to the main mode that is used in some other analyses of NTS figures and use detailed mode breakdowns of NTS results as opposed to aggregate groupings. Also passenger cars category consists of car only - driver, car only - passenger and taxi / minicab; the buses and coaches category covers private hire bus, bus in London, local bus and non-local bus; and the tram / metro category relates only to the London Underground (the Glasgow Underground is not identified in the results of the NTS).

The NTS average for the total distance travelled per person in GB (covering all modes of transport) is 6,826 miles, or 10,985 kilometres in 2011/12 For the modes of transport shown in the table (which excludes, for example, air and ferry) the NTS average is 10,556 kilometres. This difference between the Uk and GB figures arises because the two sets of figures are on different bases:

  • the NTS figures relate only to personal travel within GB, and are produced from the results of a survey of households across GB;
  • the EU publication's figures have been derived by dividing estimates of the total volume of travel (passenger-kilometres) within the country by the total population of the country.
  • The kinds of travel which would be counted using the latter approach (but not by the NTS) include
  • travel within GB by foreign tourists and other non-residents;
  • travel for business purposes (e.g. to and from meetings);
  • and, possibly, some travel in the course of their work by the likes of lorry drivers, postmen and bus drivers.

Therefore, estimates produced using the latter approach will be greater than the NTS estimates, which cover only personal travel by residents.

There are no official estimates of the total passenger-kilometres travelled within Scotland: the only Scottish estimates of the average distance travelled per head of population are NTS ones, which cover only personal travel by residents.

Although the two methods produce markedly different average distances, they produce quite similar modal shares - e.g. the modal share for passenger cars is: NTS – 82.3%; shown in EU Energy and Transport in Figures – 85.6% (NB: in both cases, the modal shares are calculated excluding powered two-wheelers, walking and cycling, for consistency with the figures in the relevant table of the EU publication). Therefore, the modal shares for Scotland, calculated from the NTS results, should be comparable to the modal shares for the EU countries.

International air passengers (traffic between EU countries)

The figures for Scotland and the UK are both for 2017 (the same year as the EU figures). The Scottish figure is taken from the Total EU countries in Table 8.3(a) of this publication. It is the number of passengers to and from the EU-28 countries for the main Scottish international airports (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Glasgow Prestwick). The table shows figures for 21 of the EU member states: these are the countries for which the international air passenger route analysis table on the Civil Aviation Authority's Web site (from which the figures for Table 8.3(a) were obtained) shows passengers to/from Scottish airports (for example, the CAA table does not show any passengers between, say, Luxembourg and any Scottish airport in 2005). These figures will underestimate slightly the total number of international passengers between Scotland and EU countries because they do not include (a) passengers on charter only routes in cases where fewer than 5,000 passengers were carried between an airport and a particular country, nor (b) any passengers to and from EU countries at other airports in Scotland. The UK figure is taken from Table AVI0105 of DfT's Aviation Statistics publication, using the figures for EU-28.

Road fatalities

The figures for Scotland and GB are both for 2018 (as are most of the EU figures).The Scottish figure is taken from Table 2 of Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2018, and the GB figure is taken from Table RAS30003 of Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2018.

Freight transport - modal shares

Both Scotland and GB relate to 2018 (as do the EU figures). The Scottish figures are derived from the tonne-kilometre figures for each mode of transport which appear in Table H2(b) of this publication. The GB figures are derived from the tonne-kilometre figures for each mode of transport which appear in Table TSGB0403 of TSGB 2019.

The figures for Scotland are based on the tonnage of goods lifted in Scotland and the distance on which they are carried on that journey, be it within Scotland or from Scotland to (say) England. For example, the tonne-kilometres for goods taken from Edinburgh to London would be calculated using the full distance between Edinburgh and London (over 660 kilometres) not just the distance between Edinburgh and the border (under 160 kilometres). Therefore, the figures do not represent the modal shares for freight transport within Scotland: they include tonne-kilometres outwith Scotland on journeys which started in Scotland, and they exclude tonne-kilometres within Scotland on journeys which started elsewhere.

Sources

Most EU country statistics originate from the EU Transport in Figures, produced annually by the EC Directorate General for Energy and Transport with the assistance of Eurostat. The publication contains a range of detailed statistics and only a summary is presented in this chapter.

Further information

Eurostat:

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe:

World Health Organization:

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