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Saarland leads Germany with the highest car density – CO2 alarm sounds!
In Saarland, the car density rose to 646 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 2025, the highest in Germany. New electric cars and CO2 emissions in focus.
Saarland leads Germany with the highest car density – CO2 alarm sounds!
The car density in Saarland has reached a new record. According to current figures, there are statistically 646 registered cars per 1,000 inhabitants in Saarland, as determined on January 1, 2025. This represents a slight increase compared to the previous year, when the density was 643 vehicles. Saarland continues to lead the ranking of the federal states, while the national average is 590 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, which also represents an increase of two vehicles in 2024. What is particularly striking is that only the city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen recorded a decline in car density, according to sr.de.
There are now a peak of 49.3 million registered cars in Germany, of which 1.65 million are electric cars. This corresponds to a share of 3.3 percent of the total inventory, an increase compared to the 2.9 percent of the previous year. There are exactly 653,594 cars registered in Saarland. The distribution of drive technologies shows that 414,698 of these vehicles are gasoline and 171,960 are diesel cars. It is noteworthy that around 90 percent of vehicles in all districts use internal combustion engines.
Regional differences in car distribution
Most cars are registered in the districts of Saarland, although the Saarbrücken regional association has fewer vehicles due to denser public transport. The St. Wendel district leads the ranking of the few registrations with only 62,557 cars. In contrast, the distribution of approvals in other districts is as follows:
| District | Approved cars |
|---|---|
| Merzig-Wadern | 73,722 |
| Neunkirchen | 87,597 |
| Saarpfalz district | 99,668 |
| Saarlouis | 135,651 |
| Saarbrücken regional association | 194,399 |
According to experts, increasing car density is also accompanied by increasing CO2 emissions. In 2023, 154.7 million tons of CO2 were emitted in road traffic nationwide. Of this, 88.9 million tons can be attributed to private households. This corresponds to around 1.1 tonnes of CO2 per capita. However, emissions have fallen by 13.8 percent since 2019, which may indicate a trend-related change in traffic behavior, as destatis.de reports.
These developments not only reflect local trends, but also show a society-wide phenomenon in dealing with mobility and the environment. The federal government will be required to improve the infrastructure for alternative drives in order to further reduce emissions and at the same time address the growing density of passenger cars.