Estonia is a strongly car-loving country, where fairly new vehicles are driven, and most families have at least one car, nearly half have two, according to If Insurance's survey.
Only 11 percent of Estonian families do not have a personal vehicle. 47 percent of families have one and 42 percent even two cars. Estonian people's car fleet is very new: 15 percent of cars are up to three years old, 25 percent are four to six years old, 19 percent are seven to nine years old, and 40 percent of cars are ten or more than ten years old.
Personal vehicles are most needed in rural areas: 97 percent of families there have a car, 61 percent have two cars. 91 percent of the families in smaller cities own a car, almost half of the families have two cars. 87 and 84 percent of the residents of larger cities and the capital own cars, while the need for two cars decreases to 38 and 26 percent, respectively.
When it comes to owning a car, it is also important whether a person lives in an apartment, a semi-detached house, a terraced house or a private house. Among people living in private, semi-detached or townhouses, 97-98 percent are car owners. Two out of every three families have two cars parked in the garage or in front of the house. 85 percent of the families living in an apartment have a personal vehicle.
The newest cars are driven by the residents of Tallinn Tallinn, the largest city and capital of Estonia (population 440 000). and Northern Estonia, nearly half of whose cars are up to six years old. Only a third of North Estonians own a car over ten years old. On the other hand, in Southern and Eastern Estonia, there are nearly 30 percent of cars up to six years old, and nearly 55 percent of cars that have exceeded the ten-year mark.
In other Baltic countries, the number of car owners is almost the same as in Estonia, i.e. nearly 90 percent. Estonia clearly has the newest car fleet among the Baltic states - while we have 40 percent of cars up to six years old, Latvia and Lithuania have 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
A little over 1,000 people from each country participated in the survey conducted by If Insurance in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.