- The United States hit a new all-time high of 875 vehicles per 1,000 people in 2024, surpassing the previous record of 844.5 set in 2007, before the financial crisis.
- That's up from just 0.1 vehicles per 1,000 people in 1900, the U.S. has gone from a country with almost no cars to one with roughly seven vehicles for every eight residents.
- Vehicle ownership fell for five straight years after the 2007 peak, bottoming at 807.8 per 1,000 in 2012, then took more than a decade to not just recover, but set a new record.
- Ownership crossed 100 per 1,000 people in 1923, 500 per 1,000 in 1968, and 800 per 1,000 in 2000.
01 Introduction
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Transportation Energy Data Book tracks vehicles per 1,000 people in the United States going back to 1900, combining Census Bureau population estimates with FHWA vehicle registration counts. That series runs through 2019. This article presents it in full, then extends it one step further: using the same two federal data sources in their most current vintage, to see where vehicle ownership per capita actually stands today.
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 40, Table 3.8, "Vehicles per Thousand People in the United States, 1900-2019."02 The Long Climb, 1900–2019
The table below shows vehicles per 1,000 people at 5-year intervals across the full 120-year record.
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 40, Table 3.8.| Year | Per 1,000 | Year | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 0.1 | 1905 | 0.9 |
| 1910 | 5.1 | 1915 | 24.8 |
| 1920 | 86.8 | 1925 | 173.3 |
| 1930 | 217.3 | 1935 | 208.6 |
| 1940 | 245.6 | 1945 | 221.8 |
| 1950 | 323.7 | 1955 | 379.8 |
| 1960 | 410.4 | 1965 | 466.9 |
| 1970 | 545.4 | 1975 | 640.1 |
| 1980 | 710.7 | 1985 | 744.5 |
| 1990 | 773.4 | 1995 | 771.0 |
| 2000 | 800.3 | 2005 | 837.3 |
| 2010 | 808.4 | 2015 | 821.1 |
| 2019 | 842.3 |
The climb wasn't smooth. The 1930s show a real dip (217.3 per 1,000 in 1930 down to 208.6 by 1935) during the Great Depression, and the 1940s dip again during World War II (245.6 in 1940 to 221.8 in 1945) as vehicle production shifted to the war effort and gasoline was rationed. Growth resumed sharply after both.
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 40, Table 3.8.Estimate your vehicle's total driving cost using official EPA fuel economy data.
Use the Calculator03 The 2007 Peak and Its Aftermath
The most interesting recent stretch is the 20 years since 2000, shown here in full annual detail.
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 40, Table 3.8.| Year | Vehicles per 1,000 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 800.3 | |
| 2001 | 825.8 | |
| 2002 | 815.7 | |
| 2003 | 816.1 | |
| 2004 | 829.9 | |
| 2005 | 837.3 | |
| 2006 | 840.7 | |
| 2007 | 844.5 | 2007 peak |
| 2008 | 841.6 | |
| 2009 | 828.7 | |
| 2010 | 808.4 | |
| 2011 | 812.5 | |
| 2012 | 807.8 | Post-crisis low |
| 2013 | 809.1 | |
| 2014 | 817.1 | |
| 2015 | 821.1 | |
| 2016 | 831.2 | |
| 2017 | 836.6 | |
| 2018 | 836.3 | |
| 2019 | 842.3 |
Vehicle ownership per capita peaked in 2007 at 844.5 per 1,000 people, then fell for five consecutive years to a low of 807.8 in 2012, a 4.4% decline. The timing lines up with the 2008 financial crisis and the run-up in gasoline prices through 2008 and again 2011-2012 (see this site's gas price history), both of which reduced vehicle purchases and household vehicle counts. By 2019, the rate had climbed back to 842.3, just short of the old 2007 record, twelve years after the crisis began.
Calculated: (807.8−844.5)÷844.5=−4.3%. DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 40, Table 3.8.04 A New All-Time High in 2024
TEDB's published series stops at 2019. To see where the rate stands today, this site calculated the same ratio using the most current vintage of both underlying federal sources: FHWA's Table MV-1 (2024 total registered motor vehicles) and the U.S. Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 population estimates (July 2024).
FHWA, Highway Statistics, Table MV-1 (2024): 297,525,836 total registered motor vehicles, all categories. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates: 340,003,797 residents, July 1, 2024.| Year | Vehicles per 1,000 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 842.3 | TEDB Table 3.8 |
| 2024 | 875.1 | Calculated (this site) |
2020 through 2023 aren't shown here because a consistent, single-source registration count for those specific years isn't available in this site's data (FHWA's MV-1 table is published as a current-year snapshot, not a running historical series). The 2024 figure uses the same two-source methodology as the historical TEDB series, total registered vehicles divided by resident population, just with newer editions of both.
05 What This Means
The headline number obscures an important nuance: "vehicles per capita" divides by total population, including children, retirees, and non-drivers, not just licensed drivers or households. A rising rate can reflect more vehicles per household, more single-vehicle-per-adult ownership, or a growing share of the population living in car-dependent areas, and this data doesn't distinguish between those causes on its own. For a closer look at ownership by household rather than by population, see this site's vehicles per household breakdown by income and location, and for how ownership varies today by state, see vehicles per capita by state.
06 Data Sources
- DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 40, Table 3.8, "Vehicles per Thousand People in the United States, 1900-2019" (itself sourced to U.S. Census Bureau population data and FHWA Highway Statistics vehicle registrations).
- Federal Highway Administration: Highway Statistics, Table MV-1 (2024 vehicle registrations). fhwa.dot.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau: Vintage 2025 national population estimates. census.gov
- This site's related analysis: Vehicles per Household and Vehicles per Capita by State.