Over the past decade, the number of passenger cars in Prague has risen sharply. In 2013, the Czech capital recorded 565 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. By 2023, that figure had climbed to 753 – a gain of nearly 190 vehicles per thousand inhabitants that places Prague among the ten most motorized regions in the EU.
In absolute terms, the registered fleet grew from 821,000 vehicles in 2013 to 1,186,209 in 2023. Only two Italian regions and Romania recorded a comparable increase in motorization across the EU over the same period.
Romania and the two Italian regions were, in each case, recovering from an unusually low starting point. Romania had only 242 cars per thousand inhabitants in 2013, far below the EU average of 493 and less than half of Prague’s figure of 565, which was itself already high by European standards. That Prague has grown rapidly from an above-average base makes the trend harder to dismiss.
