Registered motor vehicles

The purpose of the statistical process is to provide information on registered road vehicles, aircraft, and watercraft, as well as registered railway rolling stock.

Vehicles, mobile machinery, and tractor trailers registered in the traffic register (annual);

first registrations of vehicles and machinery by type (monthly);

registered aircraft by type (annual);

seagoing vessels registered in the Estonian ship registers by type (annual);

railway vehicles registered in the railway traffic register (annual);

trams and trolleybuses (annual)

No classifications are used in the collection, processing, or dissemination of data in this statistical process. Internal code lists of Statistics Estonia are used.

Transportation

Aircraft – any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air other than the reactions of the air against the earth's surface ground or against water. Aircraft are divided into state aircraft and civil aircraft. A state aircraft is an aircraft which is used by defense forces, customs or police services. Aircraft not used by these services are deemed to be civil aircraft.

Bus – a motorised road transport vehicle with more than nine seats for the transport of passengers

Civil aircraft – an aircraft intended for operation on domestic and international civil commercial routes or for lawful civil, private or commercial use

Chartering – the hiring of a ship for the carriage of goods

Coach – a passenger railway vehicle other than a railcar or a railcar trailer

Copter – a heavier-than-air aircraft supported in flight chiefly by the reaction of the air on one or more power-driven rotors on substantially vertical axes

Covered wagon – a wagon characterised by its closed construction (fully enclosed sides and roof) and by the safety it provides for the goods conveyed in it (possibility of padlocking and sealing)

Deadweight – the total weight, in tonnes, of cargo, stores, fuel, passengers and crew carried by the ship when loaded to its maximum summer load line

Diesel locomotive – a locomotive, the main source of power of which is a diesel engine, irrespective of the type of transmission installed. Diesel-electric locomotives equipped to derive power from an overhead wire or from a conductor rail are classified as electric locomotives.

Flat wagon – a wagon without a roof or sides, or a wagon without a roof but with sides not higher than 60 cm, or a wagon of standard or special type with a tilting base. This does not include wagons intended exclusively for the transport of containers, exchangeable bodies or goods vehicles.

Freight wagon – railway vehicle normally intended for the transport of goods

Gross tonnage – a measure of the total capacity of a ship, tug or barge; expressed without units

Harvester – a mobile machine used outside roads; any self-propelled machinery, portable equipment with or without a functional body, or a vehicle not intended for the carriage of passengers or goods by road

Insulated wagon – a covered wagon, the body of which is built with insulating walls, doors, floor and roof, to limit heat exchange between the interior of the wagon and the outside, so that the overall coefficient of heat transfer (K coefficient) allows the equipment to be assigned to one or the other of the following two categories: ʱ IN = normally insulated, characterised by a K coefficient equal to or less than 0.7 W/m2 °C; ʱ IR = heavily insulated, characterised by a K coefficient equal to or less than 0.4 W/m2°C.

Jet – a water turbine vehicle with a total length of up to four meters, without a cockpit, with a stationary engine, driven while sitting, kneeling or standing

Land rover – an engine-powered vehicle intended for off-road use that is not covered by the definition of a motor vehicle and is subject to registration in the traffic register. The following must be entered in the traffic register as off-road vehicles:

- a snowmobile, a motor-powered off-road vehicle equipped with skis and driven by a tracked propulsion system, intended for movement on snow or ice, with an internal combustion engine with a cylinder capacity of more than 120 cm³, no more than two seats in addition to the driver’s seat, and an unladen weight not exceeding 500 kg;

- an off-road vehicle with at least three wheels, equipped with an internal combustion engine with a cylinder capacity of more than 90 cm3, and intended by the manufacturer for off-road use. A motor vehicle intended by the manufacturer for both off-road and on-road use is not considered a wheeled off-road vehicle.

Locomotive – a tractive railway vehicle used for hauling railway vehicles, equipped with a prime mover and motor or with a motor only, with a power at the draw hook of at least 110 kW. Light rail motor tractors are excluded.

Mobile machine – a motor vehicle moving on wheels or tracks, intended for a specific task, with a maximum design speed of more than 6 km/h but not exceeding 40 km/h; a special-purpose machine built on the basis of a car is not considered to be a mobile machine

Moped – a two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle with a maximum design speed of more than 25 km/h but not exceeding 45 km/h, equipped with

- a spark-ignition internal combustion engine with a cylinder capacity not exceeding 50 cm3, or

- any other internal combustion engine with a maximum net power not exceeding 4 kW, or

- an electric motor with a maximum continuous rated power of more than 0.25 kW but not exceeding 4 kW.

A moped also includes a light four-wheeled motor vehicle meeting the above conditions, with an unladen weight not exceeding 350 kg. The mass of the batteries of a four-wheeled electric vehicle is not included in the unladen weight.

Motorcycle – a two-wheeled motor vehicle, with or without a sidecar. A motorcycle also includes

- a three-wheeled motor vehicle with a symmetrical wheel arrangement, with an internal combustion engine with a cylinder capacity of more than 50 cm3 or a design speed exceeding 45 km/h;

- a four-wheeled motor vehicle with an unladen weight not exceeding 400 kg, or, if intended for the carriage of goods, not exceeding 550 kg and a maximum net power not exceeding 15 kW.

The mass of the batteries of a four-wheeled electric vehicle is not included in the unladen mass.

Motor vehicle – motor-powered vehicle. A motor vehicle does not include a motorised bicycle, a miniature moped, an off-road vehicle, a tram or a vehicle with a maximum design speed of less than 6 km/h.

Net tonnage – the capacity of cargo and passenger spaces, i.e. revenue-generating spaces, representing the usable volume of a vessel; dimensionless quantity

New vehicle – a vehicle that has not been in use since manufacture and has not been registered in Estonia or in any other country. A vehicle is also considered new if it is registered in a member state of the European Union for transport from the manufacturer to an official importer in Estonia.

Other aircraft – balloon, sailplane, powered hang glider

Passenger car – a motorised road vehicle, other than a motorcycle, intended for the carriage of passengers and having less than 10 seats

Plane – a power-driven heavier-than-air aircraft, deriving its lift in flight chiefly from aerodynamic reactions on surfaces which remain fixed under given conditions of flight

Private vehicle – a vehicle registered in Estonia in the name of a natural person

Railcar – a tractive railway vehicle with motor for the conveyance of passengers or goods by rail. The definitions of the various categories of locomotives (electric, diesel) apply, mutatis mutandis, to railcars. A block composed of railcars and railcar trailers can be referred to as: “multiple unit” if it is modular, and “trainset” if it is fixed. In tractive vehicle statistics, each railcar in an indivisible set is counted separately; in statistics of passenger vehicles and goods vehicles, each body fitted to carry passengers or goods (tractive and non-tractive) is counted as one unit. Independent of drivers’ compartments installed or not, any unit with tractive power must be considered as a tractive vehicle. When two railcar units have a common tractive bogie, both units are considered as a tractive vehicle.

Railcar trailer – a non-tractive passenger railway vehicle coupled to one or more railcars. Vehicles for the transport of goods, even when pulled by a railcar, are referred to as wagons.

Sea-going vessel – a vessel designed for navigation at sea

Ship with an overall length of less than 12 metres – a vessel used for work or commercial purposes, such as fishing boats or inspection boats

Small plane – an aeroplane with a maximum certified take-off mass of 5,700 kg or less

Small vessel – a watercraft with an overall lenght of 2.5 to 24 meters, used for recreational purposes (for example, a boat, sailing yacht, or motorboat), regardless of registration. A watercraft used for competitive sports and training, marked by the sports association (for example, jets, windsurfing boards, sailing or racing yachts) or watercraft of primitive or special construction (for example, dugouts, kayaks, canoes or pedal boats) is not considered a small vessel.

Special purpose rolling stock – rolling stock based on passenger railway vehicles, such as mail, baggage, track measurement, inspection and dynamometric wagons

Specific rolling stock – rolling stock, such as draisines, snowplows, snow removal machines, track maintenance machines, and railway cranes

Tank wagon – a wagon designed for the transport of unpackaged gases or liquids

Thermos wagon – an insulated wagon

Tracked tractor – a motor vehicle with tracks, driven and steered by tracks

Tractor – a motor vehicle with wheels or tracks intended for agricultural or forestry work, with at least two axles and a design speed of at least 6 km/h. A special-purpose machine built on the basis of a car is not considered a tractor.

Tractor trailer – any towed trailer used for agricultural or forestry work, whose main purpose is to tow a load and which is normally towed by a tractor for such work. This category includes trailers part of whose load is carried by a tractor. Any vehicle coupled to a tractor and fitted with a tool is considered part of an agricultural or forestry trailer if the ratio of a vehicle's technically permissible gross weight to its unladen weight is 3.0 or more and if the vehicle is not designed for material processing.

Trailer – a vehicle designed or adapted to be coupled to a motor vehicle. It does not include towed devices or interchangeable towed equipment.

Tram – a passenger or freight road vehicle designed to seat more than nine persons (including the driver) or to transport freight, which is rail-borne and connected to electric conductors or powered by a diesel engine. The tramway is generally integrated into the urban road system.

Trolleybus – a passenger road vehicle designed to seat more than nine persons (including the driver), which is connected to electric conductors and is not rail-borne

Truck – a motor vehicle intended for the carriage of goods

Wheeled tractor – a motor vehicle with wheels and at least two axles, having a maximum design speed of over 6 km/h but not exceeding 40 km/h. The main function of a wheeled tractor is to operate a machine or implement mounted on or attached to it, to operate a stationary machine or to tow a load or a trailer. A wheeled tractor also includes a motor vehicle whose principal function is to carry a load and whose design speed does not exceed 50 km/h.

Vehicle

Road and railway vehicles and watercraft and air craft registered in Estonia

Estonia as a whole

Trams and trolleybuses (annual) 1980–…

Road vehicles (annual) 1990–…

Aircraft (annual) 1994–…

Watercraft (annual) 2000–…

Railway vehicles (annual) 2009–…

First registrations of vehicles (monthly) 1993–…

Data on first registrations of vehicles are published for the previous month. The remaining data are published for the previous year, for example; data published in 2025 refer to 2024.

Not applicable

Official Statistics Act;

Law of Ship Flag and Ship Registers Act.


Agreements have been established with the following international organisations: Eurostat, OECD, UNECE, the International Transport Forum (ITF), and the International Road Federation (IRF).

None

News items can be viewed on the Statistics Estonia website in the News section.

No press releases are published based on this statistical process.

Not published

Data are published in the statistical database under the subject area Economy/Transport/ Registered motor vehicles in the following tables:

TS32: Vehicles and private vehicles, 31 December;

TS322: First registrations of vehicles (months);

TS328: Seagoing vessels registered in the Estonian Ship Registers, 31 December;

TS33: Motor driven machines and tractor trailers registered in the Estonian Traffic Register and first registration, 31 December;

TS350: Registered aircraft by type of aircraft;

and under the subject area Economy/Transport / General data of transport in the following table:

TS34: Trams and trolley buses, 31 December.



The following discontinued data tables are available under the subject area Discontinued datasets / Economy. Archive / Transport. Archive:

TS321: New vehicles registered for the first time (1995–2005); and

TS331: First registrations of motor driven machines and tractors (1990–2017);

TS35: Registered civil aircraft in aircraft register (1994–2021);

TS39: Railway vehicles in the Estonian Railway Traffic Register (2009-2024).

The database tables related to the survey were viewed 2,930 times in 2024, 2,513 times in 2023, 2,241 times in 2022, 3,259 times in 2021, and 4,638 times in 2020. These figures include views of updated data tables only; views of discontinued tables are not included.

The data table TS350: Registered aircraft by type of aircraft was first published in 2023; earlier view counts do not include views of this table.

Each table view is counted as a separate viewing. This is based on database URLs indicating that data have been selected and a table has been generated.

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act.

Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes.

No confidentiality measures are applied, as no microdata are used (the data are aggregated).

The data are transmitted to Eurostat once a year via the EDAMIS data transmission system using the Eurostat/OECD/UNECE Common Questionnaire.

The metadata related to the statistical activity were viewed 353 times (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024). This figure does not represent the number of viewers, as the metadata may have been viewed multiple times by a single user.

Glossary for transport statistics (prepared by the Intersecretariat Working Group on Transport Statistics – Eurostat, ITF and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe).

This statistical activity is guided by the European Statistics Code of Practice – revised edition, 2017.

The statistical process is based on administrative data sources.

Traffic register data from the Estonian Transport Administration are collected using the annual official statistics questionnaires “Traffic register” and the monthly questionnaire “Registration of vehicles”; ship register data are collected using the annual official statistics questionnaire “Ship register”. Data from the national civil aircraft register are obtained from the Estonian Transport Administration via a data file.

Railway traffic register data are collected from the Estonian Technical Surveillance Authority using the annual official statistics questionnaire "Railway and rolling stock".

AS Tallinna Linnatransport (Tallinn City Transport) submits the data using the annual questionnaire "Tramway and trolleybus transport entity ”.

Year;

month.

Data on railway rolling stock, road vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, and trams and trolleybuses are collected annually.

Data on first registrations of vehicles are collected monthly.

Data are collected and the submission of questionnaires is monitored through eSTAT (the web channel for electronic data submission). The questionnaires have been designed for independent completion in eSTAT and include instructions and questionnaire checks. The questionnaires and information on data submission are available on the Statistics Estonia website in the Questionnaires section.

Data are collected using the annual official statistics questionnaires "Traffic register", "Ship registers", "Tramway and trolleybus transport entity", and "Railway and rolling stock", and the monthly questionnaire "Registration of vehicles". Since 2022, data on registered aircraft have been obtained from the Estonian Transport Administration via a data file; the questionnaire "Aircraft register" is no longer in use.

Logical checks are applied during data collection.

The data are validated by the data holder. Logical checks are applied during data collection; during data processing, the data are compared with those from the previous period.

The collected data are converted into statistical input. This includes calculation of additional indicators.

For road vehicle data, the following variables are calculated:

number of vehicles registered for the first time;

number of new vehicles registered for the first time;

type of registered motor vehicle;

type of owner of the registered vehicle;

total number of registered vehicles;

number of registered vehicles – up to 2 years old;

number of registered vehicles – 2 to 5 years old;

number of registered vehicles – 5 to 10 years old;

number of registered vehicles – over 10 years old.

Imputation rate shows the share of imputed values among all values.

The data values are not imputed.

Not applied

Not applied