More kilometres driven than before the pandemic

© CBS
Passenger cars registered in the Netherlands drove a combined total of nearly 122 billion kilometres in 2024, both within the country and abroad. That was an increase of 2.3 percent on 2023 and surpassed the total for 2019 for the first time, the year before the coronavirus pandemic. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of additional research into new figures on kilometres driven.
Collectively, passenger cars drove 726 million kilometres more in 2024 than before the pandemic, up by 0.6 percent. However, the actual distance driven per car was 5.7 percent less than before the pandemic. The reason for the higher total is that there are more cars on the road today. There were 9.9 million cars in the Netherlands in 2024, compared to 9.3 million in 2019.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the distance driven rose almost every year, but during the pandemic there was a significant decrease: 17.8 percent fewer kilometres were driven in 2020 than in 2019. Although the average distance driven per car fell by 18.4 percent, the number of cars continued to increase during the pandemic.


More kilometres driven by private individuals

In total, 79 percent of kilometres were driven by cars registered to private individuals (natural persons), and the remainder by business drivers (vehicles registered to legal entities). Private individuals drove 96.1 billion kilometres, collectively, which was more than before the pandemic. Business drivers were below the 2019 level, at 25.8 billion kilometres.

Women are driving more kilometres

Cars registered to men accounted for 65.4 percent of all kilometres driven by private individuals. Cars registered to women were driven further, up by 5.4 percent on 2019, while cars registered to men were driven 0.6 percent less.

Compared to 2019, more cars were owned by men than by women, but there was a larger increase in the number of cars registered to women (+4.9 percent among men versus +9.3 percent among women).



Women aged under 40 and over 60, in particular, were more likely to own a car and drive more than they did in 2019. Cars registered to women aged under 40 drove an average of 12.4 thousand kilometres, while women aged over 60 drove an average of 7.2 thousand kilometres by car.

Highest income groups drive the largest number of kilometres

Households in higher income groups were more likely to own a car and to drive further than households in lower income groups. In 2024, 31.3 percent of all kilometres were driven by cars belonging to households in the highest income quintile. Cars owned by households in the lowest income quintile accounted for 8.8 percent of the total.

Sources