Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Chapter 12: International Comparisons

Infographic Chapter 12: International Comparisons

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 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: 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: 20.4; EU-28: 17.3).  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: 445; EU-28: 424). 

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 (463 per thousand population) compared with the EU as a whole (EU-15: 527; EU-28: 516).  Eight 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 (62 per thousand population) compared with the overall EU average (EU-15: 76; EU-28: 75). Of the EU-28, eleven countries have lower figures.

2.7 The number of new vehicle registrations in Scotland was relatively high (35 per thousand population), higher than the EU-15 and EU-28 averages – only five of the EU-28 countries had higher rates (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark 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: 81.8%).

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: 27; EU-15: 43; EU-28: 49).  Of the EU-28 countries, only one country (Sweden) had a lower figure. 

Freight

2.11 For freight transport, road has a low modal share in Scotland (63.1%) compared with the overall EU figure (EU-15: 73.0%; EU-28: 73.8%). 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 2018   1.1 5.44 8.82 11.40 7.05 0.86 10.61 82.79 5.78 1.32 10.74 46.66 5.51 66.93 4.11 9.78 4.83 60.48 2.81 0.60 1.93 0.48 17.18 37.98 10.29 19.53 10.12 2.07 5.44 66.27 512.38 408.42 5.44 64.55 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 2018   calc'd 70 105 373 64 93 135 232 134 29 81 92 16 106 73 105 69 201 43 233 30 1505 414 121 112 82 22 102 111 272 115 123 70 282 272
Infrastructure and vehicles                                  
Motorways                              
km 2017   2.5.1 476 1,743 1,763 734 257 1,240 13,009 1,308 154 2,133 15,523 893 11,618 1,310 1,937 916 6,943 324 165 2,758 1,640 3,065 763 2,132 783 482 3,803 77,396 67,773 461 3,688  3,803 
km per '000 sq km 2017   calc'd 6.1 20.8 57.8 6.6 27.8 15.7 36.4 30.3 3.4 16.2 30.7 2.6 18.4 23.1 20.8 13.0 23.0 5.0 63.8 66.4 5.2 33.3 3.2 4.7 38.6 9.8 15.6 17.3 20.4 6.1 16.1 15.6
All roads  ( @  )                              
'000 km 2017 Excluding Other roads (U roads)  2.5.2  28.7 36.2 16.3 7.7 4.8 55.7 229.9 74.7 16.6 42.0 165.6 26.9 398.5 17.8 32.0 18.4 183.0 21.2 2.9 7.1 2.9 13.2 156.8 14.3 52.8 172.9 20.1 18.0 86.2 1,895 1,481 28.7 165.1 175.1
km per '000 sq km 2017 calc'd 369 432 535 69 519 707 644 1,733 367 318 327 80 629 315 344 262 607 325 1,117 110 9,036 317 502 155 221 384 989 368 353 424 445 369 721 718
Railways                              
km 2017   2.5.3 2,819  4,953 3,605 4,030 0 9,408 39,219 2,487 1,033 2,240 15,904 5,926 28,120 2,605 7,752 1,894 17,105 1,911 275 1,860 0 3,055 18,513 2,546 10,766 10,874 1,209 3,626 16,320 217,236 154,523 2,819 15,878 16,218 
km per '000 sq km 2017   calc'd 36.2 59.0 118.1 36.3 - 119.3 109.8 57.7 22.8 17.0 31.4 17.5 44.4 46.0 83.3 26.9 56.8 29.3 106.3 28.8 - 73.6 59.2 27.6 45.2 24.1 59.6 73.9 66.9 48.6 46.5 36.2 69.3 66.5
Passenger cars                              
million 2017   2.6.2  2.46 4.90 5.80 2.77 0.53 5.54 46.47 2.53 0.73 5.28 23.50 3.42 32.01 1.60 3.47 2.09 38.52 1.36 0.40 0.69 0.29 8.37 22.50 5.06 6.00 4.84 1.12 2.22 32.20 264.21 215.40 2.46 31.20  32.16 
per 1,000 pop'n 2017   calc'd 463 555  509  393  609  522  561  438  550  492  504  621  478  389  355  432  637  483  670  357  613  487  593  492  307  479  541  408  486  516 527 463 483 484
Powered two wheelers  ( $ )                              
thousands 2017 02 & '04 2.6.5  70 832 631 181 39 1,102 4,373 198 52 1,583 5,285 604 3,034 154 167 40 9,218 42 30 53 25 1,873 2,755 593 127 611 125 133 1,256 35,118 30,161 70 1,234 1,256
Goods vehicles                              
thousands 2017 2.6.4 332 476 887 423 108 694 3,242 438 115 1,344 5,143 605 6,742 168 543 349 4,256 116 43 87 47 1,023 3,640 1,337 975 633 103 317 4,535 38,388  31,053  332 4,398 4,535
per 1,000 pop'n 2017 calc'd 62 54 78 60 125 65 39 76 87 125 110 110 101 41 55 72 70 41 72 45 99 60 96 130 50 62 50 58 68 75 76 62 68 68
New registrations of passenger cars                            
thousands 2018   2.6.6 188 341 550 38 13 261 3,436 218 26 103 1,321 120 2,173 60 137 126 1,910 32 53 17 8 444 532 228 129 354 65 98 2,367 15,162  13,745  188 2,342  2,394 
per 1,000 pop'n 2018   calc'd 35 39 48 5 15 25 41 38 20 10 28 22 32 15 14 26 32 12 87 9 17 26 14 22 7 35 32 18 36 30  34 35 36 36
Passenger transport &                                  
Distance travelled (kilometres per person per year)                                
Passenger cars 2017   2.3.4 * & 8,557 9,324 9,421 8,121 7,671 7,026 11,339 10,445 9,943 9,461 7,154 12,103 11,097 6,304 6,190 11,819 12,295 11,012 12,992 7,681 5,688 8,120 5,418 8,942 4,953 11,608 13,134 5,174 10,187  9,582 10,447 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 2017   2.3.5 * &  651 1,240 1,177 1,486 1,797 1,672 757 1,270 2,135 1,900 656 1,496 854 999 1,869 2,052 1,703 962 1,939 1,111 1,208 270 950 719 925 998 1,781 1,090 600  998 948 651 565  
Tram / metro 2017   2.3.6 * & 0 819 123 151 0 1,034 208 59 91 157 164 101 249 146 311 39 111 0 0 66 0 52 114 109 404 265 0 52 220  210 193 0 117  
Railways (excl. t/m) 2017   2.3.7 * & 778 1,443 896 202 0 889 1,160 1,092 278 103 591 776 1,494 177 789 444 879 111 742 306 0 1,079 535 438 288 1,334 276 691 1,047  918 1,028 778 779  
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 13,579 12,418 9,959 9,468 10,621 14,345 14,377 12,447 14,100 9,287 15,285 14,375 7,627 9,159 14,999 16,739 12,084 16,283 9,162 6,896 10,801 7,017 11,333 6,571 14,969 15,192 7,007 12,569  11,708 13,589 10,385 10,557  
Modal shares & (% of total pass-kms for specified modes)                                
Passenger cars 2017 As distance travelled 2.3.3  (^) 85.7 72.7 81.1 81.5 81.0 66.2 84.2 81.2 79.9 81.4 83.5 83.6 81.0 82.7 67.6 82.3 82.0 91.1 82.9 83.8 82.5 85.3 77.2 87.6 75.4 81.7 86.5 73.8 84.5  81.8 82.8 85.7 85.6  
Bus and coach 2017 2.3.3 6.5 9.7 10.1 14.9 19.0 15.7 5.6 9.9 17.2 16.4 7.7 10.3 6.2 13.1 20.4 14.3 11.4 8.0 12.4 12.1 17.5 2.8 13.5 7.0 14.1 7.0 11.7 15.6 5.0  8.5 7.5 6.5 5.6  
Railways (excl. t/m) 2017 2.3.3 7.8 11.2 7.7 2.0 - 8.4 8.6 8.5 2.2 0.9 6.9 5.4 10.9 2.3 8.6 3.1 5.9 0.9 4.7 3.3 - 11.3 7.6 4.3 4.4 9.4 1.8 9.9 8.7  7.8 8.1 7.8 7.7  
Tram / metro 2017 2.3.3 0.0 6.4 1.1 1.5 - 9.7 1.5 0.5 0.7 1.3 1.9 0.7 1.8 1.9 3.4 0.3 0.7 - - 0.7 - 0.5 1.6 1.1 6.1 1.9 - 0.7 1.8  1.8 1.5 0.0 1.2  
Total pass km these modes 2017   calc'd 9,986  12,826 11,616 9,959 9,468 10,621 13,465 12,867 12,447 11,622 8,565 14,477 13,694 7,627 9,159 14,354 14,987 12,084 15,673 9,162 6,896 9,521 7,017 10,208 6,571 14,204 15,192 7,007 12,054  11,708 12,617 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 2.28 2.15 1.25 7.88 1.08 1.71 4.27 1.61 3.88 3.86 2.76 1.49 1.80 1.08 5.96 1.93 1.42 5.34 2.28 11.56 2.82 0.80 3.80 0.80 3.10 0.88 0.19 2.85 2.17 2.46 2.37   2.47
Road fatalities                              
number 2017   2.7.1 145 414 615 682 53 577 3,180 175 48 731 1,830 238 3,444 331 625 156 3,378 191 25 136 19 535 2,831 602 1,951 253 104 276 1,856 25,256  17,432  145 1,793 1,856
per million pop'n 2017   calc'd 27 47 54 97 61 54 38 30 36 68 39 43 51 81 64 32 56 68 42 70 40 31 75 58 100 25 50 51 28 49 43 27 28 28
Freight transport: modal shares (Thousand million tonne-kms)                                
Road 2017   2.2.4c 14.9 26.0 34.2 35.2 0.8 44.3 313.1 15.5 6.2 28.4 231.1 28.0 167.7 11.8 39.7 11.8 119.7 39.1 9.4 15.0 0.3 67.5 335.2 34.2 54.7 41.9 20.8 35.4 153.9 1,921  1,282  14.9 147.0  
Rail 2017   2.2.5 2.6 22.3 7.3 3.9 15.8 112.2 2.7 2.3 0.4 10.7 10.4 33.4 2.6 13.4 0.1 22.3 15.4 0.2 15.0 6.5 54.8 2.8 13.8 21.8 5.1 8.5 17.2 421  270  2.6 17.2  
Inland waterway 2017   2.2.6 0.3 2.0 11 5.3 56    -  0.1 7.5 0.813 2.0   -  0.1 49  0.1 12.5 0.9 0.1 147  126  0.3 0.1  
Pipeline 2017   2.2.7 5.8 8.4 1.6 0.7 2.2 18.2 2.2 0.0 9.7 11.2 1.8 2.4   -  10.3 0.4 1.4 6.1 21.1 0.4 1.1 4.8 10.0 114  78 5.8 4.8  
Total these modes 2017   calc'd 23.6 58.7 54.2 45.1 62.3 499.1 20.4 28.8 251.5 38  219.8 17.0 57.4 12  152.3 54.9 10  31.4 129.2 411.2 37.4 82.1 64  26  49.6 181.2 2,603  1,756  23.6 169.1  
Freight transport: modal shares (% of total tonne-kms)                                
Road 2017   2.2.4c * 63.1  44.3  63.1  78.0  100.0  71.1  62.7  76.0  72.7  98.7  91.9  72.8  76.3  69.6  69.1  99.2  78.6  71.2  96.0  47.7    100.0  52.3  81.5  91.5  66.6  65.7  80.2  71.4  85.0  73.8 73.0  63.1 87.0   
Rail 2017   2.2.5 * 11.1  37.9  13.5  8.7  ####### 25.4  22.5  13.0  27.3  1.2  4.2  27.0  15.2  15.2  23.3  0.8  14.7  28.1  2.0  47.8  5.0  13.3  7.4  16.8  34.3  19.8  17.1  9.5  16.2 15.4  11.1 10.2   
Inland waterway 2017   2.2.6 * 1.1  3.4  20.5  11.7  -   0.0  11.1  -   -   -   -   0.3  3.4  4.8  3.5  -   0.0  -   2.0  -   37.9  0.0  -   15.2  0.0  -   1.9  0.1  5.7 7.2  1.1 0.1   
Pipeline 2017 2.2.7 * 24.8  14.3  3.0  1.6  -   3.5  3.7  11.0  -   0.1  3.9  -   5.1  10.4  4.2  -   6.7  0.7  -   4.5  -   4.8  5.1  1.1  1.3  -   -   9.7  5.5  4.4 4.5  24.8 2.8 

( # )  ( + )  ( @ )  ( $ )  (^)  ( * )  ( ** )  ( *** )  (&) -  see footnotes 

( # ) 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.