Tens of thousands of vehicles may be driving on the roads of Cyprus without insurance

According to the Department of Road Transport, by the end of 2024 the number of vehicles on the roads stood at 416,297. At the same time, according to the Sigorta Bilgi Merkezi (SBM) database, 336,234 vehicles had valid compulsory motor insurance — a difference of around 75,000.

The head of the Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies, Börte Barlasoğlu, explained that part of the discrepancy may be due to vehicles that are listed in the system but are not actually in use and should be deregistered. According to his estimate, the real number of uninsured vehicles may be lower — approximately 15,000–20,000.

The problem is not limited to insurance alone: earlier, during discussions on the Ministry of Transport’s budget, Minister Erhan Arıklı stated that around 479,000 vehicles are registered in the country, but only about 300,000 have active insurance and technical documents (“seyrusefer”).

The article also presents data for 2025: in the first nine months, 266,541 vehicles had active compulsory insurance.