Over 25 percent cars in Poland are the so-called “dead souls”
Officially, there are over 27 million cars in Poland. In this respect, we are among the European leaders. However, the data has little to do with reality.
According to CEPiK data, at the end of 2023, there were as many as 27.347 million passenger cars registered in Poland. That's 672 thousand. more than a year earlier. However, this number has little to do with reality. In fact, over 25 percent all these cars are the so-called dead souls.
How many cars are there in Poland?
Dead souls are cars that CEPiK describes as archival. These are unregistered, uncancelled, but practically non-existent vehicles. At least 10 years have passed since the date of their first registration, and no update has been received about them for 6 years, e.g. from a vehicle inspection station or the Insurance Guarantee Fund. Most of them are probably located on the so-called rubbish.
How many such vehicles are there? As much as 7.245 million, or almost 26.5 percent. all cars in Poland. After subtracting them, it turns out that there are actually 20.1 million cars on the road in our country. This is still an increase of 433 thousand. compared to the end of 2022. This gives 533 cars per 1,000 inhabitants.
Dead souls also significantly affect the average age of a car in Poland. If we take them into account, it turns out that Poles drive cars that are 21.5 years old. However, removing them from the equation gives an average result of 16.12 years. It's still a lot, but the difference is as much as 5 years. We still drive quite old cars, but not that old.
