The U.S. Census Bureau, together with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has released an experimental data product featuring modeled national-level estimates to supplement existing Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) data tables.

The 2021 VIUS provides data on the physical and operational characteristics of the nation’s truck population. Its primary goal is to produce national- and state-level estimates of the total number of vehicles, miles traveled, and average miles traveled per vehicle.  A sample of approximately 150,000 vehicles was selected from more than 190 million private and commercially owned trucks registered with motor vehicle departments in 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. New Hampshire did not allow the Census Bureau access to its motor vehicle registration records, and therefore New Hampshire was not included in the VIUS data collection. The main sample-based survey estimates do not account for any New Hampshire vehicles in the national estimates.

This experimental data product provides the national VIUS estimates which include modeled estimates for New Hampshire vehicles, and therefore, is critical to fulfill one of the VIUS’s primary goals. Characteristics of trucks with registration addresses in New Hampshire were modeled using the data collected from neighboring states; these modeled data were then combined with the survey data collected from the remaining 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to provide estimates at the U.S. level.

Tables of national estimates including modeled estimates for New Hampshire are provided as an Excel file as a one-time release to supplement the main 2021 VIUS publication tables.  For more information on this experimental data product, see the Methodology document provided, below.

September 28, 2023

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