Thailand's car ownership reaches 31 per cent
Bangkok - About 14 million Thais, or 31 per cent of the population over the age of 20, now own a car, media reports said Thursday.
According to a recently released regional survey by Nielsen Media Research, Thailand ranks fifth worldwide in terms of the number of total cars owned, estimated at 14 million, and has one of the highest car ownership percentages in Asia, said the Bangkok Post.
At 31 per cent of the adult population, Thailand ranked above Singapore (21 per cent), Hong Kong (16 per cent) and the Philippines (10 per cent), but below Malaysia (67 per cent), Taiwan (66 per cent) and South Korea (74 per cent).
China and India, although ranked among the fastest growing markets for automobiles, still have fairly low percentages of car ownership at 6 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, said the Nielsen survey.
The US ranked first with the highest percentage of car ownership among adults at 89 per cent, or nine in every 10 adults, and a total of some 190.3 million vehicles. Japan was excluded from the survey.
Monsters & Critics May 4, 2007
I wonder whether they just forgot to mention that 2/3 of those weren't allowed to be on the streets in most Western countries but only in junkyards.
I bet this "high standard of living" convinces the world that Thais should pay for the full prize of AIDS medicines, just as USA for Innovation wants.