If you are presently asking, “How many wheels are in the world,” then you are likely must have seen the wheels vs. doors debate. This is a debate that started as a simple tweet on X but has now transcended to become a fierce debate on almost all social media platforms.
There are now several videos on TikTok and Instagram where users are airing their own opinion about the debate. So, we have taken a side too, and want to let you know about it with facts to support our opinion.
We live in an era of immense personal mobility. Our world has never been more accessible. We have more options for transportation than ever before, and the number of wheels that move us has reached staggering numbers. There are presently about 37 billion wheels in the world. The number of doors obviously couldn’t reach that.
In fact, most doors even have wheels – if we are to critically look at the full definition of wheels. Hinges on the doors are run by wheels. So, it’s clear there couldn’t be more doors than wheels. So the next time you come across the debate, “Doors or wheels; which is more,” you should know what to say about it.
Let’s take a dipper dive into the topic in this post. We hope we will be able to answer the question, “How many wheels are in the world” with tangible facts.
How Many Wheels Are In the World?
There are many wheels in the world, but how many? This is a question that is still a mystery to many of us today. While we don’t have an exact number of how many wheels there are on Earth, we know enough to give us an idea.
By looking at statistics from around the globe, we can estimate that there are probably around 1 billion cars and light trucks currently sitting in driveways across the United States alone! That’s just North America—the rest of the world has far more vehicles than that on its roads and highways.
In fact, if you were to look at all vehicle types combined (including bicycles, scooters, roller skates, skateboards, etc.), it would be estimated that there are about 37 billion wheels rolling around our planet’s surface right now.
What about the Wheels vs. Doors Debate?
The “wheels vs. doors” debate is not one that you want to engage in if you can help it. While there are many who would argue for the superiority of doors over wheels and vice versa, it’s important to remember that both have their place in this world—and actually need each other to function properly!
It’s true that doors are more common than cars (we’ll get into why that is soon), but it’s also true that there are far more cars than houses in the world. This means that while they may appear on a smaller scale, they’re still just as necessary as houses when talking about what makes our planet go around.
The wheels vs. doors debate started on X as a simple tweet and has quickly spread to all other social media platforms. Several users have used the debate in their posts, and many have done viral videos to air their own opinions about the debate.
The sensation started with a tweet from an X user, Ryan Nixon, who made a poll to ask his followers what their opinion was about the topic. According to Ryan, he called it the “Stupidest debate” and asked his followers to talk about it.
Since the tweet came out, many people have indeed responded to the debate. And that is also the reason for this post. To answer the question, ‘How many wheels are in the world?”
How Many Wheels Are In the World?
If you’re reading this and wondering how many wheels there are in the world, the answer is a lot. In 2016, the world’s car and light truck population rose to 27 billion, up 5.6% from 2010. This figure represents all cars on earth. This includes those sitting in garages or being used as parts for other vehicles and doesn’t take into account older models that have been destroyed or scrapped over time.
Now let’s see a quick breakdown of how many wheels we have in the world.
1. Bicycles and Motorcycles
This is a good place to start when considering how many wheels are in the world. Presently, there are an estimated 1.25 billion bicycles (including unregistered ones) and motorcycles. The countries with the most bicycles and motorcycles are China, India, and Indonesia.
In 2017, an estimated 653 million people owned a bicycle in their household—and those are just the registered ones. In comparison, only about 200 million people owned a motorcycle that year. And once again, these were only the registered ones. That means that more than twice as many people own a bicycle than own a motorcycle!
If you look at all households worldwide with either one or two wheels, you’ll see that there is a roughly equal distribution between those who have just one wheel (bicycle or motorcycle) versus those who have two wheels (motorcycle).
So while some countries may have higher ownership of either one or both types of vehicles compared to others.’ Overall, they’re fairly evenly distributed across all countries around the globe.
2. Skateboards
The skateboard market is worth over $5 billion, and with over 1 billion skateboards currently in circulation around the world, it’s easy to see why. The average skateboarder is 12 years old and has a 2.5-foot board, which is 8 inches wide and 5 inches tall. Keep in mind that these dimensions are not set in stone; some skateboards are much smaller than this average or much bigger!
3. Roller Skates or Roller Blades
Roller skates are a type of shoe that has two wheels and a boot. The roller blades are a type of roller skate that has two wheels and the same kind of boot. The first roller skates were made in the late 1700s, but they were not used for transportation until 1869, when James Plimpton invented them as a way to help people who could not walk easily get around.
Today, you can buy these types of shoes from many different stores, including Walmart and Target. Presently, there are more than 2.4 billion roller skates around the world. With at least four wheels on each roller skate, we can say the estimated total number of wheels on roller skates, and roller blades around the world are 9.6 billion.
4. Billion Cars
When we are talking about how many wheels are in the world, we can’t just neglect the contribution of cars to this number. In 2016, more than 70 million new cars were manufactured. If you like cars, this is a pretty impressive number. The 70 million cars manufactured in 2016 were the most ever produced by manufacturers. It was also the first time that total production exceeded 70 million vehicles.
In fact, global production has been steadily increasing year over year since 2010, when it was around 65 million new cars manufactured. Production increased by 5.6% from 2015 and 2% from 2014 to push past the 70-million mark for new car manufacturing in 2016.
Right now, the estimated total number of cars in the world is around 1.4 billion. And each car has at least 8 wheels in it.
5. Buses and Trucks
There are about 75 million buses and trucks in the world today. Buses are typically used for public transportation, while trucks can be anything from a small cargo vehicle to a large delivery truck. The main uses of buses and trucks include carrying passengers, goods, or both; transporting livestock; moving people from one place to another; and providing entertainment.
That way, they usually have larger wheels than cars and bicycles. There are many different types of buses and trucks: city buses, school buses, tour buses, charter buses, and more! They also come with different engines, such as diesel engines and gasoline engines. The size of each engine decides how many people can fit on it – some carry up to 100 passengers while others only hold up to 10!
6. Tractors
There are 120 million tractors in the world. They’re used to pull trailers, plows, hay balers, seeders, and sprayers. They can also be used as forklifts.
Tractors are a vital part of farming; they help farmers get their crops off the land and into storage or onto trucks for transportation to market. Who knows that there can be as many trucks in the world? But the fact is there are lots of these vehicles in different places of the world. You can imagine how many wheels each of these will have.
7. Trucks
If you own a car, truck, or SUV, chances are you’ve heard of the most common type of wheeled vehicle: the truck. Trucks have been transporting goods and materials since they were first invented around 5,000 years ago.
They are used on all kinds of terrain to carry everything from livestock to passengers to raw materials and finished products. In 2021, there were an estimated 13 million trucks operating in the United States alone.
8. Train Wagons
There are presently about 18 million train wagons in the world, with about two hundred and fifty-four million wheels.
A wagon is a type of railroad car that can transport freight, luggage, or passengers. The term “wagon” has become less common in American English but remains an important part of the vocabulary of British English. The first wagons were cut from whole tree trunks (often oak) and contained only four wheels.
These were used to carry heavy loads to market while being pulled by oxen or horses walking on wooden tracks. Later, metal tires were added around the rims of each wheel to allow for smoother movement over cobbled roads. As time progressed, technology improved and led to more advanced forms of transportation, such as steam trains which use coal as fuel instead.
9. Passenger Jets
Perhaps this has never occurred to you; there are more than 4,000 passenger jets in the world. These planes are used for long-distance travel, like short or international flights. They can carry many people at once and are much faster than cars or trains.
10. Baby Carriages/Prams/Strollers
That’s right. The number of baby carriages in the world is estimated at 12 billion, or roughly one for every living person. That’s a lot of strollers!
Let’s get a better idea of what that means by breaking down the stroller stockpile in some more specific countries:
- United States – 8 billion (80%)
- United Kingdom – 2 billion (20%)
- Germany – 6 million (6%)
- Japan – 2 million (2%)
How Many Doors Are In the World?
Now that you have an idea of how many wheels are in the world, let’s consider the number of doors too. So, how many doors are in the world?
Well, if you go by the number of doors in the United States alone, it’s about 2 billion. That’s a lot of doors! But how many doors are there on planet Earth?
That depends. If you’re asking about single-family homes, then there are about 5 billion. If you’re asking about commercial buildings, schools, offices, and other public places that have doors, then there are over 15 billion.
And if you would like to know, almost all vehicles have at least 2 doors in them. Perhaps, that is why most people still find it hard to agree that there are more wheels in the world than doors.
Which Company Is the Largest Manufacturer of Wheels?
It depends on which company you’re asking. The largest producer of car tires is Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, followed closely by Bridgestone Corporation. In third place is Michelin, who makes tires for both cars and commercial vehicles.
Firestone Tire & Rubber Company comes in fourth place with its focus on tires for trucks, buses, and construction equipment. The fifth largest manufacturer of wheels is Trelleborg AB, followed by Pirelli Tyre SPA and Continental AG (formerly ZF Friedrichshafen). These are companies that produce tires for passenger vehicles as well as light commercial vehicles such as vans and trucks.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has given you a better idea of how many wheels are in the world and why we keep making more. The number of wheels is constantly increasing due to an increase in demand for cars and other vehicles as well as an increase in population size worldwide. With so many vehicles on earth today, there is no doubt that we will continue producing even more as time goes on, so get ready!
So, whenever you are caught up in the debate of ‘which is more; wheels or doors,’ and tempted to ask, ‘how many wheels are in the world,’ you should have a genuine answer. Now you know that there are more wheels in the world than doors, and that doesn’t seem likely it’s going to change any time soon.
