Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12: International Comparisons - Infographic

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. Scotland figures use 2014 mid-year estimates, compared to the 1st January 2014 population estimates given for EU countries.

1.4 In some cases, the EU countries' figures do not all relate to the same year.  (See the Notes and Definitions section, page 225).  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 nine of the EU-28 (Ireland, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta) have fewer people.  Scotland also has a low population density (69 people per square kilometre) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 121; EU-28: 114).  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 (5.8 km of Motorway per thousand square kilometres), well below the overall EU figure (EU-15: 19.8; EU-28: 16.6).  Seven of the EU-28 countries (Bulgaria, 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 9 per cent below the EU-28 average when ‘other roads’ and unclassified roads in Scotland are excluded (Scotland: 369 km of road per thousand square kilometres; EU-15: 381; EU-28: 407).  

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: 47.2; EU-28: 49.4).  Nine of the 27 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 (446 per thousand population) compared with the EU as a whole (EU-15: 511; EU-28: 491).  Ten 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 (55 per thousand population) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 73; EU-28: 71). Of the EU-28, Nine countries have lower figures. 

2.7 The number of new vehicle registrations in Scotland was relatively high (41 per thousand population), higher than the EU-15 and EU-28 averages – only two of the EU-28 countries had higher rates (Belgium 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 82.8%; EU-28: 81.9%). 

Air travel

2.9 Relative to the size of its population, Scotland has less international air passengers to or from the EU-28 countries (1.67 per head of the population, not counting internal UK traffic) than the overall EU figure (EU-15: 2.01; EU-28: 1.75).  

Road Fatalities

2.10 Scotland's number of road deaths per million population is well below the overall EU average (Scotland: 32; EU-15: 44; EU-28: 51).  Of the EU-28 countries, only five countries (Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Sweden and Malta) had lower figures.  

Freight

2.11 For freight transport, road has a low modal share in Scotland (60.0%) compared with the overall EU figure (EU-15: 71.2%; EU-28: 73.0%). The modal share of pipelines (28.2%) 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    (2016 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 2015   1.1 5.37 8.58 11.26 7.20 0.85 10.54 81.17 5.66 1.31 10.81 46.44 5.47 66.35 4.23 9.85 4.63 60.80 2.92 0.56 1.99 0.43 16.90 38.01 10.37 19.86 9.75 2.06 5.42 64.77 508.19 403.53 5.37 63.26 65.110034
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 41.5 312.685 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 2015   calc'd 69 102 369 65 92 134 227 131 29 82 92 16 105 75 106 66 202 45 218 31 1359 407 122 113 83 22 102 111 266 114 121 69 276 254
Infrastructure and vehicles                                  
Motorways                              
km 2013   2.5.1 456 1,719 1,763 605 257 776 12,917 1,216 140 1,558 14,981 810 11,552 1,295 1,767 897 6,751 309 152  -   -  2,678 1,482 3,065 644 2,057 770 420 3,760 74,341 65,876 456  3,654   3,768 
km per '000 sq km 2013   calc'd 5.8 20.5 57.8 5.5 27.8 9.8 36.2 28.2 3.1 11.8 29.6 2.4 18.2 22.9 19.0 12.8 22.4 4.7 58.8  -   -  64.5 4.7 33.3 2.7 4.6 38.0 8.6 15.4 16.6 19.8 5.8 16.0 15.5
All roads  ( @  )                                  
'000 km 2013 Excluding Other roads (U roads)  2.5.2  28.7 35.4 16.3 7.6 4.8 55.8 230.4 74.1 16.5 41.7 165.4 26.9 398.5 17.7 31.8 17.1 181.6 21.3 2.9 7.1 2.4 13.0 173.0 14.3 53.3 98.5 6.7 18.0 85.9 1,818 1,267 28.7 118.3 128.3
km per '000 sq km 2013 calc'd 369 422 535 69 515 707 645 1,720 365 316 327 79 629 313 341 243 603 325 1,114 109 7,472 313 553 155 224 219 332 366 352 407 381 369 517 526
Railways                                  
km 2014   2.5.3  2,763  5,058 3,631 4,023 - 9,456 38,836 2,612 1,510 2,238 15,901 5,944 30,905 2,604 7,892 1,919 17,037 1,767 275 1,853 - 3,031 18,942 2,544 10,770 10,881 1,208 3,627 16,209 220,673 157,021 2,763 15,753  16,093 
km per '000 sq km 2014   calc'd 35.4 60.3 118.9 36.2 - 119.9 108.8 60.6 33.4 17.0 31.4 17.6 48.8 46.0 84.8 27.3 56.5 27.1 106.3 28.7 - 73.0 60.6 27.6 45.2 24.2 59.6 74.0 66.5 49.4 47.2 35.4 68.8 66.0
Passenger cars                              
million 2014   2.6.2  2.37 4.69 5.57 3.01 0.48 4.83 44.40 2.33 0.65 5.11 22.03 3.18 31.80 1.47 3.11 1.97 37.08 1.21 0.37 0.66 0.27 7.98 20.00 4.50 4.91 4.58 1.07 1.95 30.56 249.77 206.15 2.37  29.61   30.51 
per 1,000 pop'n 2014   calc'd 446 547  495  418  565  459  547  412  497  472  474  581  479  349  316  425  610  413  662  331  619  472  526  433  247  470  518  360  472  491 511 446 468 469
Powered two wheelers ( $ )                            
thousands 2014 02 & '04 2.6.5  67 788 453 155 41 999 6,182 198 42 1,620 5,033 568 3,015 153 162 37 9,022 33 27 46 18 1,772 2,406 486 107 619 96 81 1,240 35,399 31,060 67 1,216 1,240
Goods vehicles                                  
thousands 2014   2.6.4 292 435 814 412 104 615 2,890 440 97 1,323 5,026 543 6,519 144 478 317 4,081 100 38 83 44 949 3,341 1,237 807 581 87 294 4,066 35,864  29,258  292 3,945 4,066
per 1,000 pop'n 2014   calc'd 55 51 72 57 123 58 36 78 74 122 108 99 98 34 49 69 67 34 68 42 103 56 88 119 41 60 42 54 63 71 73 55 62 62
New registrations of passenger cars                                
thousands 2015   2.6.6 222 309 501 24 10 231 3,206 208 20 76 1,034 109 1,917 35 77 125 1,575 17 46 14 7 449 355 178 81 345 59 78 2,634 13,721  12,712  222  2,602   2,661 
per 1,000 pop'n 2015   calc'd 41 36 45 3 12 22 39 37 15 7 22 20 29 8 8 27 26 6 83 7 17 27 9 17 4 35 29 14 41 27  32 41 41 41
Passenger transport and Distance travelled (kilometres per person per year)               
                             
Passenger cars 2014   2.3.4 * & 8,557 9,003 9,785 7,447 7,058 6,303 11,399 9,536 9,007 8,812 6,875 12,019 12,760 6,136 5,337 10,249 10,577 8,268 12,976 6,308 5,674 8,616 5,686 7,992 4,272 11,913 12,439 5,032  10,173  9,429 10,379 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 2014   2.3.5 * &  651 1,191 1,981 1,584 1,569 1,591 782 1,176 1,818 1,911 849 1,383 836 859 1,785 2,215 1,691 1,010 1,888 1,164 1,156 683 1,017 539 705 897 1,673 988  639  1,040 864 651 565  
Tram / metro 2014   2.3.6 * & 0 824 110 101 n/a 909 208 52 134 151 152 94 254 136 285 35 111 n-a n-a 67 n-a 85 110 93 401 253 n-a 47  194  201 188 0 117  
Railways (excl. t/m) 2014   2.3.7 * & 778 1,408 979 234 n/a 727 1,108 1,209 213 98 541 711 1,357 216 780 375 822 92 666 322 n-a 961 413 369 249 1,257 301 477  1,006  847 962 778 779  
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 13,180 13,658 9,366 8,627 9,530 14,377 13,483 11,173 13,450 9,138 15,015 15,886 7,346 8,187 13,519 14,953 9,370 16,139 7,862 6,829 11,625 7,226 10,118 5,627 15,085 14,414 6,544  12,528  11,517 13,366 10,385 10,557  
Modal shares &(% of total pass-kms for specified modes)                                
Passenger cars 2014 As distance travelled 2.3.3  (^) 85.7 72.4 76.1 79.5 81.8 66.1 84.5 79.6 80.6 80.3 81.7 84.6 83.9 83.5 65.2 79.6 80.1 88.2 83.6 80.2 83.1 83.3 78.7 88.9 75.9 83.2 86.3 76.9  84.7  81.9 82.8 85.7 85.6  
Bus and coach 2014 2.3.3 6.5 9.4 15.0 16.0 18.5 16.1 5.7 9.8 17.2 17.6 13.0 9.8 5.4 11.3 21.6 14.0 13.2 7.8 12.4 15.6 17.0 6.6 13.9 6.8 12.3 6.6 11.4 14.9  5.6  9.2 8.3 6.5 5.6  
Railways (excl. t/m) 2014 2.3.3 7.8 12.2 7.3 2.8 - 7.7 8.4 10.2 1.6 0.9 6.0 5.2 9.1 3.0 9.9 2.7 6.3 0.8 4.7 4.8 - 10.0 6.1 3.9 4.2 9.1 2.3 7.1  8.2  7.4 7.7 7.8 7.7  
Tram / metro 2014 2.3.3 0.0 4.1 0.9 1.6 - 9.8 1.6 0.4 0.9 1.4 1.4 0.7 1.6 1.7 3.2 0.3 0.9 - - 0.9 - 0.8 1.5 1.0 7.4 1.9 - 0.8  1.6  1.7 1.4 0.0 1.2  
Total  pass km these modes 2014 calc'd  9,986  11,718 13,019 8,660 8,450 9,197 12,905 11,941 10,093 10,895 8,652 14,258 15,022 7,279 8,030 12,294 12,285 11,280 15,105 7,281 6,448 9,916 6,925 8,872 5,044 13,856 14,222 6,489  11,872  11,184 12,202 9,986 10,145  
International air passenger traffic between EU countries (arrivals plus departures)                                
million 2014   2.4.1*** 8.88 18.33 20.19 5.32 4.93 8.29 120.77 20.92 1.55 31.53 140.09 13.17 87.10 5.09 7.16 22.48 97.14 2.94 2.02 3.45 3.83 36.66 20.14 26.39 9.36 26.18 1.34 0.74 149.93 887.05 812.90 8.88   127.4
per head of pop'n 2014   calc'd 1.67 2.14 1.79 0.74 5.82 0.79 1.49 3.70 1.18 2.92 3.02 2.41 1.31 1.20 0.73 4.86 1.60 1.01 3.59 1.74 8.92 2.17 0.53 2.54 0.47 2.69 0.65 0.14 2.31 1.75 2.01 1.66   1.96
Road fatalities                                                                      
number 2014   2.7.1 172 430 727 661 45 688 3,377 182 78 795 1,688 229 3,384 308 626 193 3,381 267 35 212 10 477 3,202 638 1,818 270 108 291 1,854 25,974  17,660  203 1,775 1,854
per million pop'n 2014   calc'd 32 50 65 92 53 65 42 32 59 74 36 42 51 73 64 42 56 91 62 107 23 28 84 61 92 28 52 54 29 51 44 38 28 29
Freight transport: modal shares (Thousand million tonne-kms)                                
Road 2014   2.2.4c 12.4 24.3 31.8 27.9 0.5 54.1 310.1 16.2 6.3 19.2 195.8 23.4 165.2 9.4 37.5 9.8 117.8 28.1 9.6 13.7 0.3 70.9 250.9 34.9 35.1 42.0 16.3 31.4 143.2  1,725   1,214  12.4   143.2
Rail 2014   2.2.5 2.6 20.5 7.3 3.4  -  14.6 112.6 2.5 3.3 0.3 10.8 9.6 32.2 2.1 10.2 0.1 20.1 14.3 0.2 19.4  -  6.2 50.1 2.4 12.3 21.3 4.1 8.8 22.1  411   268  2.6   22.1
Inland waterway 2014   2.2.6 0.2 2.2 10  5   -   0   59   -   -   -   -  0.1 8.8  1  1.8  -  0.1  -   0   -   -   49  0.1  -   12   -   -  0.9 0.2  151   130  0.2   0.2
Pipeline 2014   2.2.7 5.8 8.3 1.6 0.6  -  2.1 17.5 2.4  -  0.2 9.0  -  11.1 1.1 2.8  -  9.6 0.6  -  2.4  -  5.8 22.1 0.4 1.0  -   -  4.5 10.0  113   76  5.8   10.0
Total these modes 2014   calc'd 20.7 54.9 51.3 33.2 0.9 67.4 491.8 22.0 10.9 21.3 218.1 34.9 229.1 12.6 47.7 10.1 154.4 38.3 8.5 36.7 0.3 127.1 293.7 35.7 56.4 55.5 19.4 42.5 190.1  2,365   1,705  20.7   190.1
Freight transport: modal shares (% of total tonne-kms)                  
Road 2014   2.2.4c *  60.0   44.2   62.1   83.9   60.0   80.2   63.1   73.5   57.8   90.1   89.8   67.1   72.1   74.5   78.6   96.9   76.3   73.4   113.2   37.3   100.0   55.8   85.4   97.6   62.3   75.6   84.1   73.8   75.3  73.0  71.2  60.0    75.3 
Rail 2014   2.2.5 *  12.6   37.3   14.2   10.4   -    21.6   22.9   11.1   29.8   1.5   5.0   27.5   14.1   16.8   21.3   1.0   13.0   37.4   2.5   53.0  0.0   4.9   17.0   6.8   21.7   38.4   21.2   20.8   11.7  17.4  15.7  12.6    11.7 
Inland waterway 2014   2.2.6 *  1.1   4.0   20.4   15.3   -    0.0   12.0   -    -    -    -    0.4   3.8   5.7   3.8   -    0.0   -    3.4   -   -    38.8   0.0   -    20.8   -    -    2.1   0.1  6.4  7.7  1.1    0.1 
Pipeline 2014   2.2.7 *  28.2   15.0   3.1   1.8   -    3.1   3.6   10.9   -    1.0   4.1   -    4.9   8.8   5.9   -    6.2   1.5   -    6.5   -    4.6   7.5   1.0   1.7   -    -    10.5   5.3  4.8  4.4  28.2    5.3 

 

( # ) 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.