- Vehicles registered in 2020
At the end of December 2020, there were 600,053 vehicles registered at the National Land Transport Authority. This represents a net increase of 19,424 vehicles (3.3%) as compared to end of year 2019 when the number of registered vehicles was 580,629 (Table 1.1).
During the year 2020, the fleet was strengthened with the registration of 24,877 vehicles, of which 15,667 (63.0%) were new, 7,785 (31.3%) were imported second-hand and 1,425 (5.7%) were re-registered vehicles; i.e., those which had been previously put off the road. During the same period, some 5,453 vehicles were put off the road. The net addition to the existing fleet worked out to 19,424 vehicles (Table 1.1).
- Composition of fleet
A breakdown of the fleet by type of vehicle is given in Table 1.2. At the end of December 2020, the fleet consisted of 53.3% (320,064) cars, double cab pickup and dual purpose vehicles and 37.0% (221,988) auto/motor cycles. The remaining 9.7% comprised vans (29,744), lorries and trucks (16,512), buses (3,101) and other vehicles (8,644). It is to be noted that, prior to year 2013, double cab pickup was included in dual purpose vehicles.
3. Vehicles used for transport of passengers
3.1 Cars, double cap pickup and dual purpose vehicles
At the end of December 2020, the number of cars, double cab pickup and dual purpose vehicles was 320,064, a rise of 4.2% over the figure of 307,081 as at end of December 2019. This increase resulted from the registration of 15,460 such vehicles (7,744 new, 7,066 imported second-hand and 650 re-registered), partly offset by 2,477 vehicles that were put off the road (Table 1.1).
Table 1.3 shows the age distribution of cars, double cab pickup and dual purpose vehicles. At the end of December 2020, some 40.0% were less than 5 years, 31.5% between 5 and 9 years and the remaining 28.5%, 10 years and above.
- Buses
At the end of December 2020, there were 3,101 registered buses. During 2020, some 20 new buses were registered while 6 buses were put off the road resulting in an increase of 14 buses.
4. Motor cycles and auto cycles
At the end of 2020, there were 221,988 motor cycles and auto cycles. This represents a net increase of 5,125 (+2.4%) against 216,863 at the end of 2019 (Table 1.1).
5. Road traffic accidents
The number of road traffic accidents registered during the year 2020 was 28,611 against 29,644 in the preceding year, showing a decrease of 3.5%. Among those accidents, in the majority, 25,525 (92.7%) there were no injury, 119 were fatal and 1,967 caused serious/slight injuries (Table 2.1).
Compared to 2019, fatal accidents, accidents causing casualties as well as those with no injury decreased by 8.5%, 23.8% and 1.4% respectively.
In 2020 the accident rate, expressed as the number of accidents per 100,000 mid-year population was 2,341 compared to 2,425 in 2019. The number of accidents per 1,000 mid-year registered motor vehicles works out to 49 against 52 in 2019.
The number of persons who died as a result of road accidents in 2020 went down by 9.0% compared to 2019. The fatality rate, expressed as the number of persons who died as a result of road accidents per 100,000 mid-year population, works out to 10.7, compared to 11.8 in 2019. Out of the 131 persons killed in road accidents during year 2020, the most vulnerable category of road users were riders/pillion riders of auto/motor cycles (65), followed by pedestrians (24), (Table 2.3).
It is to be noted that detailed road traffic accident statistics are compiled mostly from PF178 forms covering accidents causing casualty, obtained from the Police Department. Due to insufficient data from the Police Department since the second semester of 2019, it has not been possible to produce all tables that are usually included, in this issue of Economic and Social Indicators. These include seriousness of injury of casualties, type of vehicles and class of road users involved in accidents, and accidents involving ‘hit and run’ cases among others.
Statistics Mauritius
Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development
Port Louis
March 2021
