COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2019
20
Figure 8 shows the length of the road network relative to the country’s population. Road
network per capita can be considered as a proxy for measuring the extent of service by roads to
any person in a country. All OIC countries (except Oman, Libya, Suriname, Brunei, Saudi Arabia,
Albania, and Malaysia) have fewer than 6 km of roads per 1,000 population. At the individual
country level, Oman registered the highest level of road length, 14.26 km per 1,000 people. Road
network per capita in the OIC Member States is relatively low compared to developed countries
as well as the world average. The OIC countries as a whole have 3.12 km of roads per 1,000
population compared to 20.7 and 11.6 for the US and EU, respectively. What this would suggest
is that the length of the road network is inadequate to serve the population. Yet at the same time,
compared to the US and the EU, the road networks in OIC countries are too large relative to GDP,
and the proportion of the motorways, highways, national and main roads is also too high.