How many vehicles are there in the US?   

Remembering that the US Census records data on residences (so cars that belong to, e.g., car rental agencies, won't be included), this is the place to look.  Here's a sample of what you'll get:

Click here to buy the full US Vehicles tabulation for $20, using PayPal

The above spreadsheet shows that the number of vehicles in Wyoming is approximately 438,366.  Here's how we arrive at that number:

1. The Census Bureau categorizes each residence as having 0-6+ vehicles.

2. We count the number of households in each category.

3. We multiply the number of households in each category by the number of vehicles for the category.  E. g., there are 80,150 households in WY that have 2 vehicles each, so there are 160,300 vehicles in 2 vehicle households in WY.

4. We add them all up ("Num in St" is the sum of all "Num in Cat" for that state.)

There are a few things worth noting here:  

1. There are 43,086 households in WY that have no vehicles.  That seems like a large number for WY, but it turns out that many of those households are vacant.  

2. Notice that after the "HouseHlds" column there are columns for "LoVal" and "HiVal".  This is an extremely valuable benefit that the Census Bureau has given us recently - now we can determine how good the numbers are.  There is a 90% chance that the "real" number is between "LoVal" and "HiVal".  For our calculations we use "HouseHlds", but be aware that this is an estimate.  (The word "Census" actually comes from the Latin "censeo", meaning "I estimate").

3. For the households with 6+ vehicles, we count them as having 6.  This is done because most of them will have 6.  Note that as the household counts progress from 2 vehicles to 6+, the numbers drop dramatically, so the probability of many of these households having more than 6 vehicles is slim.

To get the full report - giving the same detail as we see in Wyoming for all US States, plus Washington, DC, and giving the total number of vehicles in the US (that are garaged at residences), buy our pre-prepared report.  It's easy to buy - you pay via PayPal (we never see your credit card information) and it's delivered to you by PayLoadz.

It will be delivered in a .csv format (Comma Separated Values) that can easily be read by a spreadsheet such as ExcelŽ.  If you don't have a spreadsheet program, you can get a free one from www.Openoffice.org.  

Click here to buy the full US Vehicles tabulation for $20, using PayPal

VEHICLES AVAILABLE

The data on vehicles available were obtained from answers to long-form questionnaire Item 43, which was asked on a sample basis at occupied housing units. These data show the number of passenger cars, vans, and pickup or panel trucks of 1-ton capacity or less kept at home and available for the use of household members. Vehicles rented or leased for 1 month or more, company vehicles, and police and government vehicles are included if kept at home and used for nonbusiness purposes. Dismantled or immobile vehicles are excluded. Vehicles kept at home but used only for business purposes also are excluded. Aggregate vehicles available. To calculate aggregate vehicles available, a value of 7 is assigned to vehicles available for occupied units falling within the terminal category, 6 or more. (For more information on aggregates, see Derived Measures.) Vehicles per household (Mean vehicles available). Vehicles per household is computed by dividing aggregate vehicles available by the number of occupied housing units. Vehicles per household is rounded to the nearest tenth. (For more information on means, see Derived Measures.) Limitation of the data. The statistics do not measure the number of vehicles privately owned or the number of households owning vehicles. Comparability. Data on automobiles available were collected from 1960 to 1980. In 1980, a separate question also was asked on the number of trucks and vans. The data on automobiles and trucks and vans were presented separately and also as a combined vehicles-available tabulation. The 1990 and Census 2000 data are comparable to the 1980 vehicles-available tabulations. In 1990, the terminal category identified 7 or more; this was changed to 6 or more in Census 2000.

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