More motorcycles, mopeds on Canadian roads in 2022

Bet you can’t wait to twist that throttle! Winter is here and riding season is far off, so we’ll help fill the void with some stats. According to the latest annual vehicle registration data, the number of two-wheeled vehicles is up.

In 2022, 829,892 motorcycles and mopeds were registered in Canada, up from 2021 (+13,449; +1.6%). Registrations have increased each year since we started tracking the current data series in 2017, when 729,687 were registered.

Atlantic acceleration

Registrations of motorcycles and mopeds increased by 641 year over year to 23,859 in New Brunswick, tops among Atlantic provinces in 2022. Nova Scotia’s 20,019 registrations (+220) were close behind in the rear-view mirror.

Newfoundland and Labrador had 15,655 registrations (+625), while there were 4,544 (+251) in Prince Edward Island.

Quebec in the highest gear, Ontario downshifts

There were 259,969 registrations in Quebec in 2022, tops among provinces and the largest yearly increase (+16,660), outpacing the uptick at the national level.

Ontario ranked second in 2022, with 242,349 registrations, but that was down by 1,647 from 2021.

Less out west

Saskatchewan, where registrations declined by 974 to 7,301 in 2022, also saw a drop, as did Alberta (-4,325 to 138,872).

Increases in registrations for Manitoba (+1,106 to 27,249) and British Columbia (+862 to 86,489) helped to partly offset the slowdown.

Northern touch

Ridership in the territories was highest in Yukon, with 1,495 registrations in 2022, up by 26 from 2021 and edging out those in the Northwest Territories (-34 to 1,448). There were 643 registrations in Nunavut, up by 38 from 2021.

We’ll end with a fun fact: over 1 in 10 road motor vehicles (11.0%) registered in Nunavut in 2022 were motorcycles or mopeds. This is more than double the proportion in the Northwest Territories (5.2%) and more than triple the national average (3.2%).