Mapping car ownership in Great Britain over four decades

This article describes a methodology for mapping the level of household car ownership for the island of Great Britain, using data from five population Censuses. The basic units of display are ‘Tracts’, which are aggregations of local municipality electoral wards that were in place for each of the three Censuses conducted in 1981, 1991 and 2001. In addition, this article documents the utility of these Tracts to represent a consistent geography across two additional Censuses, those of 1971 and 2011. This analysis enables a consistent and complete picture of changes in car ownership over a 40-year period to be visualised as both geographical maps and cartograms of Great Britain. The advantages and disadvantages of each type of representation are discussed. The paper finishes by providing evidence of a downward trend in car ownership in central London and increasing spatial homogeneity in car ownership through time.