Car Ownership Statistics 2024

The average American is a car owner. Across the country, 92 percent of American households have one vehicle or more, according to the latest U.S. Census data. 37 percent of households own two cars while 33 percent own one. Twenty-two percent own three or more cars.¹

The number of registered vehicles in the U.S. has climbed steadily over the past two decades. In 2022, there were about 90 million more registered vehicles than in 1990 or an increase of about 47 percent. There were nearly 279 million private and commercial vehicles registered in the country and about 283 million total (including publicly owned) registered vehicles.²

In 2022, 84 percent of new vehicles were bought or financed while 16 percent were leased.³

Registered Cars in Each State

In most states, the driver-to-vehicle ratio is close to one-to-one. In a few states — Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota — cars outnumber licensed drivers by around two to one or more.⁴

Cities With the Lowest and Highest Car Ownership Rates

According to 2022 Census Bureau data, densely populated cities with robust public transportation systems like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco have the lowest car ownership rates in the U.S.⁵

That said, the majority of Americans own cars, even in major cities. In the New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area, which has the lowest rate of car ownership in the country, about seven in 10 households still own a car.

The Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area — a suburb of Mobile, Alabama — and Provo, Utah have some of the highest rates of vehicle ownership. In these areas, 98 percent of households have at least one car and nearly 70 percent of households have at least two cars.

Income Level

The people most likely to own cars in the U.S. are those who make between $50,000 to $74,999 a year.⁶⁷

The most popular make of vehicle owned or leased by high-income households is a BMW, with 16 percent of Statista survey respondents in that income bracket saying their household has a Beamer. Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota and Honda are popular vehicles across income levels.⁸

Five most popular vehicle makes for high-income households:

1. BMW (16 percent)
2. Ford (10 percent)
3. Toyota (10 percent)
4. Chevrolet (9 percent)
5. Honda (7 percent)

Five most popular vehicle makes for medium-income households:

1. Ford (14 percent)
2. Chevrolet (13 percent)
3. Toyota (11 percent)
4. Honda (10 percent)
5. Nissan (7 percent)

Five most popular vehicle makes for low-income households:

1. Chevrolet (16 percent)
2. Ford (13 percent)
3. Toyota (10 percent)
4. Dodge (7 percent)
5. Honda (7 percent)

Age

People aged 45 and older are the most likely age group to own cars. Age and car ownership are directly correlated: The older you are, the more likely you are to own a car and the more cars you own.

Race

Black households are 10 percent less likely to live in households with vehicles and have access to a vehicle compared to the general population. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 94 percent of white households have vehicles. The average percentage of households with vehicles across all races is 91 percent.⁹

A 2024 study found that 76 percent of Black households are burdened with transportation spending (defined as spending more than 15 percent of monthly income on vehicle expenses), compared to 60 percent of white households. Across income levels and including high-income households, Black households spend a larger portion of their yearly budget on transportation. Finally, low-income Black households spend an average of $1,115 more per vehicle each year compared to low-income white households. These findings highlight the disparities even among vehicle owners, underscoring how access to transportation—essential for livelihood and economic opportunity—places a disproportionate financial burden on certain communities.¹⁰

Crossovers have the largest segment of the U.S. vehicle market share. They make up 46 percent of the total vehicles on the market.¹¹

Electric

In 2024, all-EVs accounted for 7.9 percent of new vehicle registrations.¹² In 2023, there were over 3.5 million EVs registered across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.¹³ California, Florida and Texas had the highest rates of EV registrations.

Luxury

Only 5 percent of cars on the market are in the luxury class, which includes brands such as Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lexus, and Jaguar, according to data from the National Automobile Dealers Association.¹¹

In 1960, Americans spent a total of $17 billion on new and used cars. By 2021, that number ballooned to over $590 billion, a difference of 3,370 percent. Spending dipped during the Great Recession (2007 to 2009) but began climbing again in 2010, with a sharp increase during the pandemic. U.S. expenditures on new and used cars increased by 29 percent between 2020 and 2021, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.¹⁴

The type of car accounting for the highest death rate is a four-door mini car, with traffic fatality rates 221 percent higher than the average across all car types. In contrast, a four-wheel-drive luxury SUV has the lowest traffic fatality rates — 85 percent lower than average. This data is based on car models from 2015 to 2018.¹⁵

Although car ownership has been on the rise for decades, with an average year-over-year increase in vehicle registrations in the U.S. of 1 percent, many factors make the future of car ownership uncertain.

For example, rideshare services, the normalization of work-from-home arrangements, increased availability of public transportation and the promise of self-driving cars may affect personal car ownership in the future. Not to mention the effects of rising fuel prices, high costs of living, economic woes and supply chain shortages.

According to Automotive World, a new trend may be Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Instead of owning cars outright, people would depend on the following carshare services:

• Car rental subscriptions like Zipcar
• Peer-to-peer sharing services like Getaround and Turo
• On-demand car-sharing
• Car clubs¹⁶

Similarly, the think tank RethinkX believes that by 2030, once the U.S. government has approved autonomous vehicles (AVs), 95 percent of U.S. passenger miles will be traveled using on-demand AVs. They also predict that fleets, not individuals, will own these AVs.

RethinkX calls this new business model transport as a service (TaaS) and believes it will save the average U.S. family $5,600 annually in transportation costs, equal to a 10 percent wage increase.¹⁷

Because leased cars have more insurance requirements than owned cars (mandating, for instance, collision and comprehensive coverage and gap insurance), they are sometimes more expensive to insure than owned cars. However, assuming you have the same coverage (new car replacement coverage is similar to gap coverage for owned vehicles, for example), leased vehicles may be no more expensive to insure than owned vehicles. Owned cars will only be cheaper to insure if you get minimum coverage — the bare minimum your state requires in auto insurance.

Although new technologies could affect the future of car ownership, for now, personal vehicles are here to stay, especially in places where public transportation isn’t widely available. As the cost of vehicles increases, we’ve researched the value of new vs. used cars. Our research on commuting in the U.S. dives into how people get to and from work, our rideshare statistics  explore the use of Uber and Lyft and our EV research considers the future of EVs.

We compiled this report using information from the following third parties:

• Automotive World
• Edmund’s
• Federal Highway Administration
• Infotur
• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• National Automobile Dealer’s Association
• National Equity Atlas
• Statista
• U.S. Census
• U.S. Department of Transportation