Transport Starter Data Kit: Historical socio-transport data
for Cameroon
Authors
Naomi Tan1,2, Robert Ambunda3, Nikola Medimorec3 Angel Cortez3, Agustina Krapp3, Erin Maxwell1, John
Harrison1, Mark Howells1,2
Affiliations
1. Centre for Sustainable Transitions: Energy, Environment and Resilience, Loughborough University
2. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London
3. SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
Abstract
Data on transport activity is an important element for the development of national transport decarbonisation
strategies. By having freight and passenger transport information, the impacts on vehicle and fuel
consumption changes from replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles can be
calculated. The development of a national decarbonisation strategy requires significant efforts. However,
access to data is often a barrier to starting transport system modelling in developing countries, thereby
causing delays. This article provides data that can be used to support a model for Cameroon, which may act
as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis. The data are collected entirely from
publicly available and accessible sources, focusing on national reports, statistical yearbooks, and academia.
Keywords
U4RIA
Transport data
Transport modelling
MAED
Cameroon
Specifications Table
Subject Transport
Specific subject areaTransport Data
Type of data Tables
Graphs
How data were Literature survey (databases and reports from international organisations;
acquired journal articles)
Data format Raw and analysed
Parameters for data Data collected based on inputs required to create an energy system model
collection for Cameroon
Description of data Data were collected from the websites, annual reports and databases of
collection international organisations, as well as from academic articles and existing
modelling databases.
Data source location Not applicable
Data accessibility With the article and in a repository. Repository name: Zenodo. Direct URL to
data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6539144
Value of the Data
● The data can be used to develop national transport demand models to inform national investment
outlooks and decarbonisation strategies.
● The data are useful for country analysts, policy makers, and the broader scientific community, as a
zero-order starting point for model development.
● This data could be used to examine a range of possible transport pathways, in addition to the
examples given in this study, to provide further insights into the evolution of Cameroon’s transport
system.
● The data can be used both for conducting an analysis of transport activity and emissions, but also
for capacity building activities.
● The data can be used as a call to action in addressing transport data gaps and establishing
parameters for data collection to improve the consistency of transport-climate research in these
countries.
1. Data Description
The data provided in this paper can be used to support the development of a transport model for
Cameroon. The data provided were collected from publicly available sources, including statistical
yearbooks, transport ministry reports, statistics from national authorities and affiliated research
institutions, academia, and journal articles. Global datasets (primarily from the World Bank) were only
consulted if severe data gaps existed. The dataset includes parameters on passenger and freight transport
activity, disaggregated by transport mode (road, rail, aviation, etc.) and geographic scale (inter-city or
inner-city), if available. The dataset also covers the size of the vehicle fleet, disaggregated by vehicle types.
The data coverage and subtypes vary among the parameters. The overall ambition is to include the most
recent available year(s).
Item Description of Content
Figure 1 A graph showing total population (million people), as well as the share of
urban and rural population in Cameroon.
Figure 2 A graph showing total GDP (million USD in 2015), as well as the share of the
different sectors contributing to GDP in Cameroon: agriculture, construction,
mining, manufacturing, service, and energy.
Table 1 A table showing passenger transport activity in Cameroon for the most recent
year data was available. The data are curated from national statistics agencies
or other government-affiliated agencies.
Table 2 An additional table showing passenger transport activity in Cameroon based
on UN DESA Statistics Division data (see explanation below). The data feature
information for 2018.
Table 3 A table showing freight transport activity in Cameroon for the most recent year
data were available.
Table 4 An additional table showing freight transport activity in Cameroon based on
UN DESA Statistics Division data (see explanation below). The data feature
information for 2018.
Tables 5 to 7 Tables showing vehicle fleet data in Cameroon for the most recent year data
were available.
For the parameters on passenger and freight transport activity, an additional dataset was included in Table
2 and Table 4. The UN DESA Statistics Division modelled passenger activity and freight activity for every
country in support of SDG Indicator 9.1.21. Passenger activity data provide information for road, rail, and air
transport. Freight data cover road, rail and inland water, and aviation. The passenger-km and tonnes-km
data originate from the Open SDG Data Hub. In this dataset, only the data for International Transport
Forum (ITF) (representing mostly OECD countries) and UNECE countries (mostly European countries) are
based on national reporting. For non-ITF/UNECE countries, the data are estimated using the ITF model,
which uses several covariates such as GDP, population, and transport network coverage. A description of
the model can be found in the ITF Transport Outlook 2017.
1.1 Population
Population data including total population, population growth, and split by rural or urban was gathered from
The World Bank Open Data platform2. Figure 1 displays the total population disaggregated by urban and rural
in Cameroon.
1
Freight: https://www.sdg.org/datasets/undesa::indicator-9-1-2-freight-volume-by-mode-of-transport-tonne-
kilometres/about ;
Passenger: https://www.sdg.org/datasets/undesa::indicator-9-1-2-passenger-volume-passenger-kilometres-by-mode-
of-transport/about
2
https://data.worldbank.org/
Figure 1: Total population (million people) disaggregated by urban and rural in Cameroon
1.2 Gross domestic product (GDP)
GDP data including total GDP, GDP growth, and GDP share by sector (agriculture, manufacturing, service)
was collected from The World Bank Open Data platform2. Where data was not available, data processing was
done. Figure 2 shows the total GDP, as well as the share by sector, in Cameroon.
Figure 2: Total GDP (million USD in 2015) disaggregated by share in Cameroon
1.3 Passenger transport activity
Information on passenger transport activity in Cameroon is only captured through rail transport. The official
statistics indicate 0.218 million rail passenger-km in 2018 (Table 1). The data was provided by the Ministry
of Transport’s Statistical Yearbook and it covers 2014 to 2018. During this period, rail passenger transport
activity more than halved.
Table 1: Recorded passenger transport activity (million passenger-km) in Cameroon
Mode 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Rail 0.516832 0.533788 0.511462 0.242634 0.218353
Source: Ministry of Transport, 2019, Transport Statistics Yearbook 2019 Edition, http://mintransports.net/Annuaire-
Statisrique-du-MINT_Version_Anglaise_OK.pdf
The statistical yearbook does not provide information for any other passenger transport modes.
According to the UN DESA data, it is estimated that the passenger activity in Cameroon is 33171 million
passenger-km in 2018. Most of the passenger activity is conducted through road transport (33017 million
passenger-km), followed by aviation (143 million passenger-km) and rail (10 million passenger-km).
Table 2: Modelled passenger transport activity (million passenger-km) in Cameroon
Mode 2018
Aviation 143.31696
Rail 10.414163
Road 33017.43116
1.4 Freight transport activity
Information on freight activity for Cameroon has been only available for rail. 785 million tonnes-km were
recorded for rail in 2018, according to the Ministry of Transport’s Statistical Yearbook.
Table 3: Recorded freight transport activity (million tonnes-km) in Cameroon
Mode 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Rail 978.4 1015.2 1077.8 1000.9 1094.3 1088.3 993 960 846 806 785
Source:
● Data for 2008 to 2013: National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon, 2014, Cameroon Statistical Yearbook
2014, https://cameroon.opendataforafrica.org/ggtphlc; Data for 2014 to
● 2018: Ministry of Transport, 2019, Transport Statistics Yearbook 2019 Edition,
http://mintransports.net/Annuaire-Statisrique-du-MINT_Version_Anglaise_OK.pdf
The data lacks to report freight transport activity for any other major transport modes.
According to the UN DESA modelled data, freight activity for 2018 in Cameroon is 8942 million tonnes-km.
Freight transport is mostly achieved through road transport, which is estimated at 7119 million tonnes-km
(80% of freight activity).
Table 4: Modelled freight transport activity (million tonnes-km) in Cameroon
Mode 2018
Aviation 0.066817
Inland waterways 0.099957
Rail 1822.465884
Road 7119.457607
1.5 Vehicle fleets
Country statistics do not provide information on the total vehicle fleet for Cameroon. There is only data on
the number of new vehicle registrations per year, disaggregated by vehicle categories as well as fuel types.
Table 5 shows that 81877 new vehicles were registered in 2011. More than 50% of the new vehicle
registrations are motorcycles (44636 new registrations), followed by private cars (29158 new registrations).
Table 5: Annual vehicle fleet registrations in Cameroon
Mode 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Total 57207 60926 66134 76619 81877
Bus 623 438 869 983 1144
Truck 1571 1304 1261 1699 2095
Logging truck 0 0 0 0 0
Minibus 632 822 463 607 572
Motorcycle 25614 28343 37483 42045 44636
Pick-up, SUV 2743 6003 3409 925 1045
Trailer and semi-trailer 77 363 772 1360 1299
Tractors 993 1113 981 1537 1928
Private cars 24954 22540 20896 27463 29158
Source: National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon, 2014, Cameroon Statistical Yearbook 2014,
https://cameroon.opendataforafrica.org/ggtphlc
Records indicate the vehicle registration by fuel type (Table 6). In this case, information is available from 2007
to 2018. Most vehicles use gasoline as a fuel source.
Table 6: Annual vehicle fleet registration by fuel type in Cameroon
Mode 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Others 2076 2314 1632 1224 1309
Gasolin
e 60247 22730 73265 76295 28301 79599 84340 70623 76827 83191 74391 53563
Diesel 17201 6759 22118 21607 8151 20664 22092 16874 18468 16897 16744 23202
Total 77448 29489 95383 97902 36452 100263 106432 89573 97609 101720 92379 78074
Source:
● 2007 to 2013: National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon, 2014, Cameroon Statistical Yearbook 2014,
https://cameroon.opendataforafrica.org/ggtphlc
● 2014 to 2018: Ministry of Transport, 2019, Transport Statistics Yearbook 2019 Edition,
http://mintransports.net/Annuaire-Statisrique-du-MINT_Version_Anglaise_OK.pdf
The same statistical yearbook provides one more dataset on vehicle registrations with fewer categories than
the dataset in Table 5. While Table 5 is supposed to be based on registration statistics, the dataset in Table 7
features the vehicle put in circulation.
Table 7: Vehicle fleet numbers in Cameroon
Mode 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Bus 2529 1716 629 1345 1274
Trucks 4151 3167 1222 2826 2548
SUV, vans 6772 7158 2549 5791 5277
Special vehicles 273 311 301 503 635
Minibus 1240 1183 355 881 672
Motorcycle 45421 47006 17246 47309 46817
Semi-trailer 3188 2265 722 1468 1819
Trailer 140 107 42 38 29
Agricultural vehicles 42 93 32 67 55
Tractor 2951 2155 728 1354 1705
Public vehicles 171 335 142 359 363
Commercial vehicles 1189 1385 555 1241 1742
Private cars 47892 47576 16288 42085 45480
Source: National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon, 2014, Cameroon Statistical Yearbook 2014,
https://cameroon.opendataforafrica.org/ggtphlc
The issue with vehicle fleet reporting is that, despite coming from the same source, the numbers differ
significantly. Different vehicle categories are being used and different methodologies seem to have been put
side-to-side without further clarification on how the numbers were collected. The years covered in the
reporting are not consistent. The overview of vehicles by fuel type does not represent all registered vehicles.
2. Methodology
The focus is on national data for passenger activity (passenger-km), freight activity (tonnes-km) and modes
of transport (number of vehicles). The priority is to collect data released by national governments,
government-affiliated organisations, or country-specific studies. The research identifies the most recent
available data and any data available from 1990 onwards. The priority was for any data after 2010, because
transport is a very dynamic growth sector and anything before 2010 adds limited value to understanding
the current real-world situation.
Desk research is the main data collection approach for the Transport Starter Data Kits. The desk research
examined annual yearbooks, transport statistics, country reporting, and any national statistical portals.
Websites of the national government, transport ministries, statistical institutes and other related
authorities were examined. Only when severe data gaps exist, global datasets are consulted. In some cases,
World Bank data3 on rail passenger and rail freight is included.
Each Transport Data for Starter Data Kit set contains an additional dataset, which is sourced from the
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) Statistics Division. It is included as a
secondary priority because this dataset is the result of a modelling exercise and covers every country. The
UN DESA modelled passenger activity and freight activity has the purpose to support the Sustainable
Development Goal Indicator 9.1.24. The passenger activity provides information for road, rail, and air
transport. Freight data covers the road, rail and inland water, and aviation. The passenger-km and tonnes-
km data originate from the Open Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Data Hub. In the UN DESA dataset,
only the data for countries participating in the International Transport Forum (ITF) (representing mostly
member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)) and the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) (mostly European countries) are based on
national reporting. For non-ITF/UNECE countries, data are estimated using the ITF model, which uses
several covariates such as gross domestic product, population, and transport network coverage. A
description of the model can be found in the ITF Transport Outlook 2017 5. The UN DESA dataset is included
in the Transport Data for Starter Data Kits as additional tables to fill in the incomplete picture that most
countries present. The UN DESA modelled data is less accurate and it shall only be regarded as offering the
wider picture of transport activity in the country.
The collected data have been shared with a group of relevant SLOCAT partners to validate and explore any
additional sources. The SLOCAT partners were selected based on their actions to lead projects in the region
and their involvement in data-focused knowledge products or projects. The consultation involved ten
anonymous organisations.
3
Rail passenger data: World Bank, 2022, Railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km),
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.RRS.PASG.KM; rail freight data: World Bank, 2022, Railways, goods transported
(million ton-km), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.RRS.GOOD.MT.K6
4
UN DESA, 2021, Indicator 9.1.2: Freight volume by mode of transport (tonne kilometres):
https://www.sdg.org/datasets/undesa::indicator-9-1-2-freight-volume-by-mode-of-transport-tonne-kilometres/about
;
UN DESA, 2021, Indicator 9.1.2: Passenger volume (passenger kilometres) by mode of transport:
https://www.sdg.org/datasets/undesa::indicator-9-1-2-passenger-volume-passenger-kilometres-by-mode-of-
transport/about
5
ITF, 2017, ITF Transport Outlook 2017, https://www.itf-oecd.org/transport-outlook-2017
Desk research is an approach that limits the research to material available on the internet, accessible
through search engines and linked to government and statistical institutes’ websites. However, this does
not pose a major limitation to obtaining data. Nearly every country has functional websites for statistics
and transport authorities. In a few cases, websites are not well maintained, resulting in missing or broken
hyperlinks to reports. By using services that provide access to archived websites, some of these broken
pages can be retrieved. The collected information has been shared with partners and no additional
information has been received.
While over 1,500 languages are spoken across Sub-Saharan Africa, government datasets are generally
published in a smaller subset of languages including English, French, Portuguese and others. Nonetheless,
language is not a barrier to navigating through the material and identifying the relevant parameters. The
involved team members can navigate through reports in such languages. If needed, automatic translation
tools were used.
Due to missing values in the country’s historical GDP data, extrapolation between available years was done
by the authors to address this. The World Bank’s data platform provided GDP share by sector for
agriculture, manufacturing, and services. However, GDP share by construction, mining, and energy was also
needed to align the data structure with the MAED tool. To address the lack of data available for these
sectors, the authors assumed that construction, mining, manufacturing, and energy all fall within the
industry sector. Thus, to obtain data for the three remaining sectors, the remaining percentage after
considering agriculture, manufacturing, and services from The World Bank’s data platform, was divided by
three. It is therefore assumed that the GDP share of the construction, mining, and energy sectors are the
same.
3. Ethics Statement
Not applicable.
4. CRediT Author Statement
Naomi Tan: Investigation, Conceptualisation, Methodology; Data Collection; Visualization, Writing and
Editing; Robert Ambunda: Data Collection; Investigation; Writing and Editing; Nikola Medimorec:
Conceptualisation; Methodology; Data Collection; Investigation; Writing, Review & Editing; Supervision;
Angel Cortez: Data Collection; Agustina Krapp: Data Collection; Erin Maxwell: Data Collection; John
Harrison: Supervision; Mark Howells: Supervision
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport who helped
make this and future iterations possible. We would also like to acknowledge the International Road
Federation (IRF) and the International Union of Railways (UIC) for providing us with these data. The data
are extracted from IRF World Road Statistics (WRS) and their use is subject to copyright and specific Terms
and Conditions available on the WRS website. More WRS data are available for free on its Data Warehouse
www.worldroadstatistics.org. Likewise, data was extracted from the UIC Statistics Rail Information System
and Analyses (Railisa) and more can be found on its online tool https://uic-stats.uic.org/
Funding
As well as support in kind provided by the employers of the authors of this note, we also acknowledge core
funding from the Climate Compatible Growth Program (#CCG) of the UK's Foreign Development and
Commonwealth Office (FCDO). The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the UK
government’s official policies.
Declaration of Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships which
have or could be perceived to have influenced the work reported in this article.
