Every Korean household owns one car

For the first time in Korean history, the number of registered vehicles has exceeded that of households, officials said Wednesday.

According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, 12,242,829 vehicles were registered with the government as of the end of March this year, more than the 12,212,000 households with two and more family members. The number of registered vehicles totaled 12,005,900 by the end of last year but the figure surged to more than 1.8 million in the following three months.

By type, passenger cars took the lion`s share with 8,234,254 units, or 67.3 percent, followed by trucks with 2,562,310 units, or 20.9 percent, and vans and buses with 1,408,658 units, or 11.5 percent. The number of special-purpose vehicles totaled 37,607 units, or 0.3 percent.

By region, Kyonggi Province reported the most number of cars, with 2,537,737. It was followed by Seoul with 2,467,935 and Pusan with 823,958. South Kyongsang Province ranked fourth with 814,497 units

The ratio of person per vehicle was found to be 3:8 in Korea. The figure is higher than 1:3 in the United States, 1:8 in Japan, 1:9 in Britain and 1:8 in France, but lower than 155:9 in China, 9:7 in Thailand and 13:2 in Hong Kong.

Koo Ja-Ryong bonhong@donga.com