THE number of licensed vehicles on the roads has passed the 35 million mark for the first time.
Government figures show that by the end of 2013 there were 35.03 million licensed vehicles in Britain. This included 29.14 million cars, 3.35 million light goods vehicles, and nearly 1.22 million motorcycles.
The overall figure includes such road users as lift trucks, diggers, taxis and agricultural vehicles.
The annual totals have risen steadily over the last 20 years.
There were only 25.23 million vehicles on the roads in 1994. The 2013 car total for Scotland was 2.31 million and for Wales it was 1.46 million.
AA president Edmund King said: "Our ageing population continuing to drive seems to have outweighed the slowdown in the number of younger people learning to drive.
RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: "It stands to reason that with a steadily growing population we will inevitably see the number of licensed vehicles on our roads increase.
"But every extra vehicle, of course, also brings the Government additional revenue in car tax and fuel duty which badly needs to be reinvested into the road network."
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