Which country has seen the biggest drop in new car registrations?

22 September is World Car Free day, which encourages people to abandon their cars for the day and seek alternative transport. The project is designed to highlight the benefits of going car-free for climate change, noise pollution and urban living.

The number of new cars registered each year continues to increase, however. Within the 57 member countries of the International Transport Forum (ITF) – an intergovernmental organisation within the OECD system – there were 440,000 more new registrations in 2014 than in 2013.

But the latest data shows some countries bucking this trend with falls in new car registrations, as shown in the following chart.

The biggest fall was in Azerbaijan, where new car registrations fell by more than a half between 2013 and 2014. In second place, the Russian Federation saw a fall of nearly a quarter, while registrations in Moldova dropped by more than 18% to put the country third in the list.

Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Joe Myers is a Digital Content Producer at Formative Content. 

Image: Vehicles stop at a red light. REUTERS/Carlos Barria.