The given bar chart illustrates the number of registered vehicles, clarified into five distinct categories, along with their percentage changes between 1996 and 2006. Overall, most of the vehicles witnessed a rise in their registrations, except for the motorcycles which decreased significantly, while the number of registered public transportation remain unchanged. Additionally, personal cars emerged as the highest throughout the surveyed time.
Regarding the increasing categories, people in Europe registered their personal cars the most in 1996, and this highest position remained over the time span. Increasing from 18 million in 1996 to about 24 million in 2006, registered private cars translated a 26% growth. Although the increase in the number of registered lorries was smaller in the absolute terms compared with the former, trucks recorded the highest percentage change, doubled over the timeframe from approximately 1 million in 1996 to roughly 2 million in 2006. In addition, unspecified vehicles registrations also had same increasing pattern, rose by nearly 1 million from around 2 million in the first recorded year to about 3 million by the end.
Concerning the two remaining categories, starting with the second only to the private cars in 1996, motorcycles was around 3 million at that time. However, it then dropped by one-third in 2006, with only 2 million by the end of the period. In contrast, approximately 1 million public vehicles was registered in 1996, the figure then stayed stable throughout the timeframe, which was the lowest among all the means of transportation in both years.