Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12: 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. Scotland figures use 2017 mid-year estimates, compared to the 1st January 2017 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 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 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 (70 people per square kilometre) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 122; 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: 20.2; EU-28: 17.2).  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: 369 km of road per thousand square kilometres; EU-15: 447; EU-28: 429).  

2.4 Scotland has a short rail network for its area (36.2 km of route per thousand square kilometres) compared with the overall EU figure (EU-15: 46.5; EU-28: 48.6).  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 (458 per thousand population) compared with the EU as a whole (EU-15: 521; EU-28: 507).  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 (58 per thousand population) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 73; EU-28: 72). 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 82.3%; EU-28: 81.3%). 

Air travel

2.9 Relative to the size of its population, Scotland has more international air passengers to or from the EU-28 countries (2.12 per head of the population, not counting internal UK traffic) than the overall EU figure (EU-15: 2.30; EU-28: 2.02).  

Road Fatalities

2.10 Scotland's number of road deaths per million population is well below the overall EU average (Scotland: 36; EU-15: 43; EU-28: 50).  Of the EU-28 countries, only three countries (The Netherlands, UK and Sweden) had lower figures.  

Freight

2.11 For freight transport, road has a low modal share in Scotland (63.2%) compared with the overall EU figure (EU-15: 72.4%; EU-28: 73.1%). The modal share of pipelines (24.8%) 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 2017 1.1 5.42 8.77 11.35 7.10 0.85 10.58 82.52 5.75 1.32 10.77 46.53 5.50 66.99 4.15 9.80 4.78 60.59 2.85 0.59 1.95 0.46 17.08 37.97 10.31 19.64 10.00 2.07 5.44 65.81 511.52 407.34 5.42 64.17 66.04
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 2017 calc'd 70 105 372 64 92 134 231 133 29 82 92 16 106 73 105 68 201 44 228 30 1457 411 121 112 82 22 102 111 270 114 122 70 280 271
Infrastructure and vehicles
Motorways
km 2016 2.5.1 456 1,743 1,763 740 272 1,223 12,996 1,255 145 1,843 15,444 890 11,612 1,310 1,924 916 6,943 314 161 2,758 1,640 3,065 747 2,118 773 463 3,764 76,823 67,272 456 3,649 3,764
km per '000 sq km 2016 calc'd 5.8 20.8 57.8 6.7 29.4 15.5 36.4 29.1 3.2 14.0 30.5 2.6 18.3 23.1 20.7 13.0 23.0 4.8 62.3 - - 66.4 5.2 33.3 3.1 4.7 38.1 9.4 15.4 17.2 20.2 5.8 15.9 15.4
All roads  ( @ )
'000 km 2016 Excluding Other roads (U roads)  2.5.2  28.7 36.4 16.3 7.8 4.8 55.8 230.0 74.6 16.6 42.0 165.5 26.9 402.5 17.8 32.0 18.4 184.3 21.2 2.9 7.1 2.9 13.1 173.3 14.3 53.0 172.6 19.9 18.0 86.1 1,916 1,486 28.7 165.1 175.1
km per '000 sq km 2016 calc'd 369 434 535 70 519 707 644 1,730 367 318 327 80 636 314 344 262 612 325 1,117 111 9,036 316 554 155 222 383 982 367 353 429 447 369 721 718
Railways
km 2016 2.5.3 2,819 4,917 3,607 4,029 0 9,463 38,990 2,539 918 2,240 15,922 5,926 28,364 2,605 7,749 1,894 17,096 1,911 275 1,860 0 3,058 18,429 2,553 10,766 10,882 1,209 3,626 16,253 217,081 154,516 2,819 15,811 16,151
km per '000 sq km 2016 calc'd 36.2 58.6 118.2 36.3 - 120.0 109.2 58.9 20.3 17.0 31.5 17.5 44.8 46.0 83.3 26.9 56.7 29.3 106.3 28.8 - 73.6 58.9 27.7 45.2 24.2 59.6 73.9 66.7 48.6 46.5 36.2 69.1 66.2
Passenger cars
million 2016 2.6.2  2.43 4.82 5.73 3.14 0.51 5.31 45.80 2.47 0.70 5.24 22.88 3.35 32.07 1.55 3.31 2.05 37.88 1.30 0.39 0.66 0.28 8.22 21.68 4.85 5.47 4.77 1.10 2.12 31.83 259.49 212.35 2.43 30.85 31.79
per 1,000 pop'n 2016 calc'd 458 550 505 443 595 502 555 429 534 486 492 608 479 374 338 428 625 456 662 341 615 481 571 470 279 477 531 390 484 507 521 458 481 481
Powered two wheelers ( $ )
thousands 2016 02 & '04 2.6.5  70 816 472 172 39 1,075 4,314 199 49 1,657 5,199 592 2,357 153 162 38 9,084 40 29 50 22 1,834 2,648 550 120 649 104 95 1,270 35,509 30,960 70 1,248 1,270
Goods vehicles
thousands 2016 2.6.4 306 457 860 457 106 672 3,114 439 108 1,344 5,087 582 6,740 157 517 342 4,181 109 41 84 45 989 3,542 1,310 913 616 97 309 4,407 36,574 29,716 306 4,276 4,407
per 1,000 pop'n 2016 calc'd 58 52 76 64 124 64 38 76 82 125 109 106 101 38 53 72 69 38 70 43 98 58 93 127 46 62 47 57 67 72 73 58 67 67
New registrations of passenger cars
thousands 2016 2.6.6 222 330 539 27 12 260 3,352 223 23 79 1,147 119 2,015 44 97 147 1,824 20 51 16 7 383 418 207 95 372 59 88 2,693 13,721 12,712 222 2,665 2,724
per 1,000 pop'n 2016 calc'd 41 38 48 4 15 25 41 39 17 7 25 22 30 11 10 31 30 7 86 8 16 22 11 20 5 37 29 16 41 27 31 41 42 41
Passenger transport &
Distance travelled (kilometres per person per year)
Passenger cars 2016 2.3.4 * & 8,557 9,257 9,384 7,916 7,630 6,846 11,522 10,353 9,758 9,266 7,102 10,389 11,122 6,247 5,765 11,648 11,614 8,950 13,059 7,059 5,971 8,293 5,367 8,748 4,838 11,624 12,828 5,130 10,210 9,464 10,353 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 2016 2.3.5 * & 651 1,220 1,201 1,707 1,746 1,583 779 1,241 2,177 1,938 1,028 1,504 1,214 907 1,813 2,516 1,698 911 1,926 1,111 1,257 293 969 653 949 1,000 1,748 1,086 549 1,082 1,051 651 565
Tram / metro 2016 2.3.6 * & 0 827 112 114 0 1,036 208 56 99 153 161 96 245 145 312 39 112 0 0 63 0 55 114 103 414 265 0 56 209 207 190 0 117
Railways (excl. t/m) 2016 2.3.7 * & 778 1,447 886 203 0 828 1,166 1,109 240 111 574 705 1,315 197 778 421 860 97 724 297 0 1,059 505 413 252 1,299 296 642 1,040 882 990 778 779
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 13,505 12,385 9,940 9,376 10,294 14,555 14,270 12,274 13,947 9,588 13,502 14,577 7,497 8,668 15,269 16,036 9,958 16,320 8,529 7,228 10,979 6,955 11,041 6,453 14,952 14,871 6,913 12,523 11,635 13,557 10,385 10,557
Modal shares & (% of total pass-kms for specified modes)
Passenger cars 2016 As distance travelled 2.3.3  (^) 85.7 72.6 81.0 79.6 81.4 66.5 84.3 81.1 79.5 80.8 80.1 81.8 80.0 83.3 66.5 79.6 81.3 89.9 83.1 82.8 82.6 85.5 77.2 88.2 75.0 81.9 86.3 74.2 85.0 81.3 82.3 85.7 85.6
Bus and coach 2016 2.3.3 6.5 9.6 10.4 17.2 18.6 15.4 5.7 9.7 17.7 16.9 11.6 11.9 8.7 12.1 20.9 17.2 11.9 9.1 12.3 13.0 17.4 3.0 13.9 6.6 14.7 7.0 11.8 15.7 4.6 9.3 8.4 6.5 5.6
Railways (excl. t/m) 2016 2.3.3 7.8 11.4 7.7 2.0 0.0 8.0 8.5 8.7 2.0 1.0 6.5 5.6 9.5 2.6 9.0 2.9 6.0 1.0 4.6 3.5 0.0 10.9 7.3 4.2 3.9 9.2 2.0 9.3 8.7 7.6 7.9 7.8 7.7
Tram / metro 2016 2.3.3 0.0 6.5 1.0 1.1 0.0 10.1 1.5 0.4 0.8 1.3 1.8 0.8 1.8 1.9 3.6 0.3 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.7 0.0 0.6 1.6 1.0 6.4 1.9 0.0 0.8 1.7 1.8 1.5 0.0 1.2
Total  pass km these modes 2016 calc'd 9,986 12,752 11,583 9,940 9,376 10,294 13,675 12,760 12,274 11,468 8,866 12,694 13,896 7,497 8,668 14,624 14,284 9,958 15,709 8,529 7,228 9,699 6,955 9,916 6,453 14,187 14,871 6,913 12,008 11,635 12,585 9,986 10,145
International air passenger traffic between EU countries (arrivals plus departures)
million 2016 2.4.1*** 11.24 19.47 22.53 6.98 5.95 9.96 134.46 24.26 1.78 37.88 166.37 13.95 94.30 6.22 9.49 27.86 109.66 3.71 2.69 3.94 4.65 44.19 26.50 33.93 13.25 29.30 1.84 0.86 176.66 1032.64 937.50 11.24 152.65
per head of pop'n 2016 calc'd 2.12 2.22 1.98 0.98 6.96 0.94 1.63 4.22 1.35 3.52 3.58 2.54 1.41 1.50 0.97 5.82 1.81 1.30 4.55 2.02 10.10 2.59 0.70 3.29 0.67 2.93 0.89 0.16 2.68 2.02 2.30 2.10   2.31
Road fatalities
number 2016 2.7.1 191 432 637 708 46 611 3,206 211 71 824 1,810 258 3,477 307 607 186 3,283 192 32 158 23 533 3,026 563 1,915 270 130 275 1,860 25,651 17,582 191 1,792 1,860
per million pop'n 2016 calc'd 36 49 56 100 54 58 39 37 54 77 39 47 52 74 62 39 54 67 54 81 50 31 80 55 97 27 63 51 28 50 43 36 28 28
Freight transport: modal shares (Thousand million tonne-kms)
Road 2016 2.2.4c 14.9 26.1 30.9 35.4 0.7 50.3 315.8 16.1 6.7 24.6 217.0 26.8 155.8 11.3 40.0 11.6 112.6 31.0 9.3 14.2 0.3 68.0 290.7 34.9 48.2 42.7 18.7 36.1 155.0 1,831 1,247 14.9 148.5
Rail 2016 2.2.5 2.6 21.4 7.3 3.4 - 15.6 116.2 2.6 2.3 0.3 10.5 9.5 32.6 2.2 10.5 0.1 22.7 13.8 0.2 15.9 - 6.6 50.7 2.8 13.5 21.4 4.4 8.4 17.1 412 271 2.6 17.1
Inland waterway 2016 2.2.6 0.2 2.0 10 5.5 - 0 54 - - - - 0.1 8.3 0.836 2.0 - 0.1 - 0 - - 49 0.1 - 13.2 - - 0.9 0.1 147 125 0.2 0.1
Pipeline 2016 2.2.7 5.8 8.5 1.6 0.7 - 1.6 18.8 2.0 - 0.2 10.0 - 11.4 1.6 2.3 - 10.0 0.4 - 1.5 - 6.0 22.2 0.4 1.1 - - 4.9 10.0 115 79 5.8 4.9
Total these modes 2016 calc'd 23.6 57.9 50.1 45.0 1 67.5 505.1 20.7 9 25.1 237.5 36 208.0 15.9 54.8 12 145.4 45.2 10 31.6 0 130.1 363.7 38.1 76.0 64 23 50.2 182.1 2,505 1,722 23.6 170.5
Freight transport: modal shares (% of total tonne-kms)
Road 2016 2.2.4c * 63.2 45.1 61.6 78.6 100.0 74.5 62.5 77.8 74.1 98.2 91.4 73.7 74.9 71.1 73.0 99.1 77.5 68.6 96.0 45.0 100.0 52.3 79.9 91.7 63.4 66.6 81.1 71.9 85.1 73.1 72.4 63.2 87.1
Rail 2016 2.2.5 * 11.1 36.9 14.5 7.6 - 23.1 23.0 12.4 25.9 1.0 4.4 26.0 15.7 13.6 19.2 0.9 15.6 30.5 2.1 50.3 0.0 5.1 13.9 7.3 17.8 33.4 18.9 16.7 9.4 16.4 15.7 11.1 10.0
Inland waterway 2016 2.2.6 * 1.0 3.4 20.6 12.2 - 0.1 10.8 - - - - 0.3 4.0 5.3 3.6 - 0.0 - 2.0 - - 38.0 0.0 - 17.3 - - 1.8 0.1 5.9 7.2 1.0 0.1
Pipeline 2016 2.2.7 * 24.8 14.6 3.3 1.6 - 2.4 3.7 9.8 - 0.8 4.2 - 5.5 10.0 4.2 - 6.9 0.9 - 4.8 - 4.6 6.1 1.0 1.5 - - 9.7 5.5 4.6 4.6 24.8 2.9

( # ) 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.