(Yicai Global) Dec. 20 -- Private automobile ownership grew fastest in China's central and western provinces over the past eight years, and vehicle penetration rates vary widely in the country's north and south, the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Private automobile ownership refers to the number of vehicles registered at motor vehicle administrations with civil vehicle license plates. The penetration rate measures the tally of private cars as against the total of vehicles on the road.

Car ownership in seven provinces had topped 10 million each as of last year. Coastal Shandong and Guangdong provinces came in first and second with over 20 million apiece.

Auto ownership is closely linked with economic development levels. Guangdong and Shandong ranked first and third in gross domestic product last year.

Provinces with high growth rates in auto possession over the past eight years are mostly in China's middle and western areas. Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangxi and Hubei took the first to fifth slots. These provinces also ranked in the top 10 in GDP growth following the 2008 financial crisis.

Rising labor and land cost are pushing many industries in coastal areas to move to Central and West China. Industrialization, urbanization and income growth in these regions have hit the gas, accelerating private automobile ownership in cities with hitherto low vehicle penetration rates.

The penetration rate is higher in North China than in the country's south. Northern cities have more vehicles and thus suffer severer traffic congestion than do southern ones.

Metropolises are larger in area in the north and their public transport is correspondingly less convenient. Residents are thus more apt to opt to drive than to take public transit, Prof. Ding Changfa with the Department of Economics at Xiamen University in South China told Yicai Global.

Editor: Ben Armour