An average of 68 vehicles per day were newly licensed in 2017, with more than half of them being second hand, data issued by the National Statistics Office shows.
However, the stock of licensed motor vehicles increased at an average net rate of 36 per day. Passenger cars accounted for 78.4% of total licensed motor vehicles but motorcycles registered the largest increase at (10.4%).
The same statistics show that 60.3% of licensed vehicles had petrol engines, down from 62.3% in 2010. Slightly more than 40% of driving license holders were female.
Speed cameras flashed 214 times a day
The figures show that 283,844 traffic-related contraventions were issued by the police, wardens and Transport Malta. Speed camera contraventions totalled 78,388, or an average of 214 per day.
During the same year, 334 vehicles were stolen, an increase of 30.5% over 2016.
At 1,052, the Gozo and Comino district registered the highest number of vehicles per 1,000 residents whereas the Northern Harbour registered the lowest ratio with 674 vehicles per 1,000 residents.
The number of reported traffic accidents decreased negligibly by 0.1% over 2016, with 37.7% of these accidents recorded in the Northern Harbour. Traffic casualties, however, increased by 1.1% over 2016. Six drivers, and six passengers and 7 pedestrians died as a result of traffic accidents.
Public Transport commuters totalled 48,053,045, an increase of 11.1% over 2016.
Almost 3 billion kilometres
The total distance travelled by all vehicles in Malta in 2017 was estimated at 2,976 million kilometres, 2,333 million kilometres of which were travelled by passenger cars.
When it came to air transport, passenger traffic at the MIA in 2017 increased by 17.5% compared to 2016. UK and Italy remained the two most popular destinations in terms of passenger movements, registering increases of 8.9% and 14.9% respectively over 2016.
That same year, the stock of vessels registered under the Maltese flag increased by 4.8%. Nearly half of them - 49.3% (138) were dry cargo vessels.
Cruise liner departures and landings in Malta increased by 91.2% and 78.2% respectively over the previous year.
The number of passengers crossing between Malta and Gozo increased by 5.8%, that of vehicles by 4.9%.
The overall total CO2 equivalent emissions increased by 11.9% from 2010 levels.