In the ten years since China joined the World Trade Organization, its economy has soared, with average income levels growing immensely. These factors, combined with the decreasing vehicle prices, have caused the number of privately-owned automobiles in the country to increase rapidly. According to statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese), there were a total of 73.27 million privately owned automobiles in China as of 2011. That number is over 7.5 times greater than the respective figure from 2002. From 2002 to 2011, the number of privately-owned automobiles has, on average, grown 25 percent annually.
Also worth pointing out is that passenger automobiles have constituted an increasingly growing proportion of privately-owned vehicles in China, increasing from 64.4 percent, equivalent to 6.23 million vehicles, in 2002 to 85.1 percent, equivalent to 62.37 million vehicles, in 2011.
Looking from a regional analysis, East China, which includes Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian and Shanghai, was the region with the largest number of privately owned automobiles, 22.59 million vehicles. It was followed by the North China region, covering Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and Inner Mongolia, whose total amount was 14.71 million vehicles. Quantities for the three regions of South China, which covers Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, Central China, which covers Hubei, Hunan, Henan and Jiangxi, and Southwest China, which covers Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet and Chongqing, respectively totaled 9.21 million vehicles, 8.99 million vehicles and 7.79 million vehicles.
Of the country's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, Guangdong possesses the highest number of privately-owned automobiles, 7.45 million vehicles. It was followed by Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Hebei, whose total amounts were 7.09 million vehicles, 5.34 million vehicles, 5.29 million vehicles and 5.11 million vehicles, respectively. With a total number of 3.87 million vehicles, Beijing was the municipality with the most privately owned automobiles, followed by Tianjin and Shanghai.
