However, there are many factors that can affect your experience, from the quality of roads and amount of traffic to how safe you are driving through them.
But which is the best overall country for motorcyclists? To find out the motorbike finance experts at Moneybarn have analysed these factors and more in a number of countries around the world to see which can be crowned the top destination for bikers.
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Country |
Motorcycle ownership per 1000,000 population |
Road quality score |
Congestion levels |
Number of motorcycle friendly campsites |
Motorcycle deaths (2019) per 1,000,000 |
Score /10 |
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The country with the highest
Italy is renowned for being the home of some of the most iconic motorbike manufacturers. Scooters in particular are ubiquitous in Italy, being the most popular way to navigate through the city traffic and avoid the ever-present problem of finding a parking space.
Given the love the Italian public has for motorcycles, it's no surprise the bella paese has the highest proportion of ownership, at 114 per 100,000 people.
The best
With motorbikes more susceptible to potholes and imperfections on roads than anything on four wheels, road quality is vital, not just for comfort but safety too. In The Netherlands, this is an immediate concern, having the highest-rated infrastructure in our index at 6.4, with roads kept in near-immaculate condition for the benefit of cyclists, as a result of high vehicle taxation.
The least
This Iberian country came top when it came to the lowest traffic levels, with roads having a congestion level of 14%. The country is well-known for its clear stretches of motorway outside of the more densely populated areas, and rather than redeveloping old routes, new roads are often built next to them, which eases congestion.
Motorcycle-friendly
Finding a campsite that suits all your needs can be the most stressful part of planning a trip, especially finding somewhere to securely store your motorbike whilst you relax. With this in mind, the UK leads the way in terms of motorcycle-friendly campsites at 1,052, more than five times the number of places to pitch up than second place.
The country with the safest roads
As motorcyclists can be more vulnerable to injury, it's important to note which countries are the safest, in terms of mortality rate. Taking the top spot as the safest country in our index for motorcyclists, Ireland has the lowest proportion with three deaths per million or a total of 108 in 2019.
We analysed a list of countries on a number of different factors relating to the ease of owning and riding a motorbike in each country. Each country was given a normalised score out of ten for each factor, before taking an average across all the factors to reach our final score out of ten.
The number of motorcycles per thousand of the population taken from Nation Master.
The quality of road infrastructure according to The Global Economy.
The congestion level according to TomTom’s 2020 Traffic Index. The percentage shows the additional time for a journey in each city compared to uncongested conditions.
The number of campsites listed as motorcycle friendly taken from Pitchup.
The total number of motorcyclist deaths from Our World In Data per million of the population.
The 2022 figures taken from the worldometer.
