The US has the lowest average gasoline price per gallon of the 12 countries. Residents of the US and Canada, however, spend more of their annual income on gasoline than residents of the other countries surveyed. Lower gas prices tend to induce more driving and passengers in the US travel more than in other countries.
Transportation
| COLOR CODING | |
|---|---|
| Green | Ranked first for statistic |
| Red | Ranked last for statistic |
| Average price of gasoline per gallon | % of annual income spent on gasoline | Cars owned per 1,000 persons | Biking frequency | Public transit usage | Passenger Transport (Road), Million Passenger-Km | Inland infrastructure maintenance, % GDP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 4.452 | 1.14 | 585 | 22% | 27 | 282,449 | 1.5 |
| Canada | 5.294 | 2.46 | 622 | 16% | 23 | 503,471 | 0.6 |
| Denmark | 8.277 | 0.78 | 476 | – | – | 66,544 | 0.8 |
| France | 7.882 | 0.55 | 573 | 30% | 28 | 769,146 | 0.9 |
| Germany | 7.630 | 0.93 | 584 | 43% | 33 | 854,931 | 0.8 |
| Italy | 8.058 | 0.76 | 672 | 37% | – | 598,582 | 0.9 |
| Japan | 4.757 | 1.15 | 492 | 36% | 31 | 769,440 | 1.1 |
| Netherlands | 8.607 | 1.09 | 523 | 65% | – | 163,236 | – |
| Norway | 8.371 | 0.44 | 511 | 25% | – | 68,232 | 1.5 |
| Sweden | 7.250 | 0.95 | 480 | 35% | 32 | 98,784 | 1.0 |
| United Kingdom | 7.241 | 0.85 | 528 | 19% | 37 | 770,194 | 0.9 |
| United States | 4.130 | 1.64 | 368 | 25% | 12 | 6,558,301 | 0.5 |
SOURCES
Average price of gasoline per gallon: GlobalPetrolPrices.com
September 2023. Cost per gallon in U.S. dollars.
Percent of annual income spent on gasoline: Bloomberg
Quarter 2, 2020.
Cars owned per 1,000
European Automobile Manufacturers Association for European countries, passenger vehicles, 2021. EU counties not included are Norway and United Kingdom.
Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and Arts, 2022. Passenger vehicles.
Helgi Library, for United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Japan, 2017. Passenger cars.
Biking Frequency, At Least Once a Week: Ipsos | Cycling Across the World | May 2022
Surveyed percent who reported riding a bicycle at least once a week. Denmark not included in report.
Public transit usage: Greendex 2014
Combined percentage who responded that they use public transit “at least once a week” or “every day or most days,” for 2014. Other options in survey included “at least once a month,” “a few times per year,” “once a year or less,” or “never.”
Passenger Transport (Road), Million Passenger-Km: OECD
Refers to the total movement of passengers using road transportation. All data from 2021 except for Canada (2007), Netherlands (2008), Denmark (2016), United Kingdom (2019), Germany, Japan (2020).
Inland Infrastructure Maintenance, % GDP: OECD
Spending on new inland transport construction and improvement of existing inland network, as a percentage of GDP. All data from 2021 except for Denmark (2018), Canada, Japan, United Kingdom (2019), Italy, Norway (2020).
NOTES
“Global cyclists say NO to carbon – opt for CDM” Leszek J. Sibilski
October 27, 2015.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) promotes greenhouse gas reduction projects but there have been none so far targeting bicycling. Bicycling has a Carbon Intensity of Travel of 17 g CO2e/pkm compared to 191 g CO2e/pkm for a medium-sized car, a difference that some city planners are taking into account as bicycling is on the rise.
“Macron’s U-turn on eco-tax rise gives green lobby fuel for thought” Jonathan Watts
December 4, 2018.
The French president has been forced to postpone a raise on fuel eco-tax due to violent protests. This has been a warning to other politicians around the globe to plan carefully before introducing similar measures to reduce carbon emissions, lest it be received poorly.
Page updated on 9/30/2023.