California, Texas & Florida Major Metro Regions: Vehicle Registrations, 2019

[dimondpark]

So I compiled a list comparing CA and TX Metro Region first, thinking for sure TX had more cars per capita than CA,but I was surprised to see that CA actually has more in this regard--then I added FL...Orlando has more cars than people and South Florida pips the Metroplex in total vehicle registrations, which I found noteworthy...anyhow, for other geeks like me:

California, Texas & Florida Major Metro Regions: Vehicle Registrations, 2019

Total Registered Vehicles, 2019
Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA...........................15,979,000
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA................8,674,043
Miami-Port St Lucie-Fort Lauderdale CSA...........6,166,352
Dallas-Fort Worth CSA......................................6,088,431
Houston-The Woodlands CSA.............................5,971,871
Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona CSA...........................4,245,616
Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater MSA ..............3,102,609
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA.................3,046,126
Sacramento-Roseville CSA..................................2,425,763
San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall CSA...........2,225,829
Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown MSA.................1,814,269
Jacksonville-St Mary's-Palatka CSA....................1,306,590


Vehicle Registrations Per 1,000 residents
Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona.....................1,020
Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater............971
Sacramento-Roseville..............................918
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad...............912
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland.............897
Miam-Port St Lucie-Fort Lauderdale.........895
San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall........881
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside...........853
Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown...............814
Houston-The Woodlands..........................798
Jacksonville-St Mary's-Palatka.................773
Dallas-Fort Worth...................................755

Total State Registered Vehicles(Vehicles Per 1,000 resident), 2019
California.............36,423,657(921 per 1,000)
Texas..................24,938,617(860 per 1,000)
Florida.................22,122,676(983 per 1,000)

Source: California Department of Motor Vehicles and Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and Florida Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles(FLHSMV)


CA: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/upload...y-County-1.pdf

TX: https://www.txdmv.gov/txdmv-forms/ca...nuary-december

FL: https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/vehicle-v...vr_09_2020.pdf

I've been looking for data for AZ and WA but am have a hard time finding it. Also interested in GA and CO.

[LA21st]

Woot!

[Crawford]

I assume LA has the most vehicle registrations on earth? Probably more than NYC or Tokyo, or any developing world megacity.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I assume LA has the most vehicle registrations on earth? Probably more than NYC or Tokyo, or any developing world megacity.

I assume so.

the NY counties that are part of it's CSA had a total of 6,213,255 registered vehicles in 2018. NYC proper had 2,186,273. Im guessing NNJ and CT push it over 10 million but I dont have data on those states right now.

NY: https://dmv.ny.gov/statistic/2018reginforce-web.pdf

[KevinFromTexas]

Not surprised, really. LA is pretty much the car center of the US. Population has a lot to do with it, but really, I think geographic size is what matters most. It's not that there are 6 million people in your metro that you need to drive to go see, it's that the trip across the metro might be 50 miles away if you're on the other side of it. Dallas and Houston's metros are 50 to 60 miles wide. That pretty much makes a car necessary, especially if you have a job that isn't stationary or if you work on the edge of town where public transportation is slim.

[dimondpark]

For Greater Tokyo, I get 18,243,019 registered vehicles with a rate of 478 per 1,000 people, adding up Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Yamanashi.

https://stats-japan.com/t/kiji/10786

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Tokyo_Area

[craigs]

Hmm, I wouldn't have thought Tokyo would have that many vehicles, considering it has such amazing public transport.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Orlando has more cars than people

That doesn't even seem like it should be mathematically possible, given that a fairly significant portion of any metro area's population would be made up of children who obviously don't own cars.

And then there's non-driving seniors to figure in as well.

It just kind of boggles my mind that a metro area could have more cars than people. Never would've guessed that.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

That doesn't even seem like it should be mathematically possible, given that a fairly significant portion of any metro area's population would be made up of children who obviously don't own cars.

And then there's non-driving seniors to figure in as well.

It just kind of boggles my mind that a metro area could have more cars than people. Never would've guessed that.

Do rental cars count? I would assume Orlando is one of the rental car capitals of the US due to being both heavily tourist oriented and heavily auto oriented. That said, cars aren't needed for people spending a week at Disney. And Disney charges to park a car in their hotel lots that you have no need for once you get to the resort (busses and trains take you everywhere inside the resort grounds).

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

That doesn't even seem like it should be mathematically possible, given that a fairly significant portion of any metro area's population would be made up of children who obviously don't own cars.

And then there's non-driving seniors to figure in as well.

It just kind of boggles my mind that a metro area could have more cars than people. Never would've guessed that.

I'm a senior. I've got 4 motor vehicles. If I had 2 kids and a spouse I guess that's be one per. And I once lived near Orlando (Winter Park). Go figure.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Do rental cars count? I would assume Orlando is one of the rental car capitals of the US due to being both heavily tourist oriented and heavily auto oriented. That said, cars aren't needed for people spending a week at Disney. And Disney charges to park a car in their hotel lots that you have no need for once you get to the resort (busses and trains take you everywhere inside the resort grounds).

Most would have a car IMHO. Disney's hotels are expensive. There are tons of cheaper ones nearby but you have to drive to the park. Then there's the expectation of many visitors and their kids to spend at least one day of their vacation at the beach which is only an hour's drive away. And finally, there are other theme parks in Orlando near Disney. I don't know how many people who come mainly for Disney also visit one or more of the others (or the real world of Cape Canaveral). The notion of spending a whole week at Disneyworld just boggles my mind (on the other hand I used to love Sea World).

[Steely Dan]

^ disney world is super easy to do without a car if you stay at one of the disney properties. A disney bus takes you right from the airport straight to your resort, from there the disney public transportation system of buses, monorails, and water taxis (all 100% free) is super easy and convenient to use to get around the massive sprawling disney world complex.

Disney charges an arm and a leg for parking at their resorts and parks, so they really try very hard to discourage people from renting their own individual cars.

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I'm a senior. I've got 4 motor vehicles. If I had 2 kids and a spouse I guess that's be one per.

Well, I was specifically talking about NON-driving seniors.

But since you mention it, I've got a family of four and we only have one car, so we cancel you out.

That said I have to imagine that the number of single people in this country who own 4 or more cars is pretty damn small.

[austlar1]

Heck, even San Francisco County has 492,000 vehicles and a population of 891,000. That's a densely populated area of 47 square miles with extensive rail and bus transit. This doesn't particularly surprise me since I personally know several SF residents who live in the city and own cars. They may not all use their cars every day, but they keep one handy just the same. It's not that everyone owns a vehicle, but probably a majority of multi-person households include at least one vehicle owner.

[homebucket]

I imagine these number are actually lower than the number of actual owned vehicles for CA because the emissions standards are so strict. It doesn't look like the data includes that are non-operational or for track/offroad use only.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Do rental cars count? I would assume Orlando is one of the rental car capitals of the US due to being both heavily tourist oriented and heavily auto oriented. That said, cars aren't needed for people spending a week at Disney. And Disney charges to park a car in their hotel lots that you have no need for once you get to the resort (busses and trains take you everywhere inside the resort grounds).

Yeah, gotta be due to rental cars. It's pretty common to see cars with Florida plates parked on rental car lots throughout the country. I bet New Jersey has a lot more registered cars than drivers too.

[Stay Stoked Brah]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I'm a senior. I've got 4 motor vehicles. If I had 2 kids and a spouse I guess that's be one per. And I once lived near Orlando (Winter Park). Go figure.

my dad currently owns 3 cars. I own 2.

my mom once had 3 cars registered in her name, plus another 3 cars from her significant other, plus my car and my brother's car. at one point we had 8 cars in one household and around that same time 12 cars total.

now my direct family, not including spouses or significant others owns 9 cars. 7 of which are Japanese. 2 Honda Pilots, 1 Honda Accord, 1 Honda CRV, 1 Toyota 4Runner, 1 Toyota Prius, 1 Nissan Altima. 1 American Jeep Grand Cherokee. 1 German Audi Q5. There were a couple Mercedes but they were traded in for Hondas bc they kept breaking down.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I assume LA has the most vehicle registrations on earth? Probably more than NYC or Tokyo, or any developing world megacity.

I remember reading in an old Guinness World Records book (early 90's) that LA has more registered cars than there are in all of Russia.

Of course that was well over 20 years ago.

[Stay Stoked Brah]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

I remember reading in an old Guinness World Records book (early 90's) that LA has more registered cars than all of Russia.

Of course that was well over 20 years ago.

That's wild!

today's figures are:
Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA...........................15,979,000 cars
Russia population is 146 million metro Moscow population 20 million

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Stay Stoked Brah

That's wild!

today's figures are:
Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA...........................15,979,000 cars
Russia population is 146 million metro Moscow population 20 million

No I meant all of the registered cars in Russia. My bad.

[Easy]

If we're talking registered vehicles and not just cars, think of how many people work a job where their employers also owns lots of vehicles? All the company cars, delivery trucks, service vans, etc must add up to a lot.