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Men Are 4 Times More Likely to Rent a Car than Women, Study Shows

If this was ever a competition, the ladies are losing it. A new study done by Rhino Car Hire reveals women are 4 times less likely to rent a car, as compared to their male counterparts.
Men are more comfortable behind the wheel of a rental, as opposed to women, study finds 15 photos
Photo: The Telegraph
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If you like statistics on male and female drivers, you’re going to love this one: according to data gathered by the company, based on 5,000 drivers, 4 out of 5 men are comfortable behind the wheel of a rental, as opposed to under 1 in 5 women.

Customers of the company are 82% male and 18% women. Most female drivers who rent cars are from Spain (31%), followed by New Zealand (30%) and France (24%), The Sunday Times reports.

On the bottom position for the number of women who rent cars is Saudi Arabia, with 0%. This makes complete sense, if you think that the ban on female drivers was only lifted last month. Why would one rent a car if she couldn’t even drive it without a chaperon?

As for the reason for this startling difference between male and female drivers, Phil Partridge, marketing manager at Rhino Car Hire, believes it has everything to do with how comfortable they are behind the wheel of a car they don’t know, on roads they’re not familiar with.

Another possible explanation would be that the male driver is the assigned driver, while the woman remains as backup driver, but that would imply they rented and traveled as a couple.

We’ve long noticed that men tend to be stated as the named driver on car rental bookings and so decided to look deeper into the data; to see such a disparity in the statistics proved quite a surprise, however,” Partridge explains.

Conclusive justification as to why was harder to come by. We considered whether males are more likely to drive in the family unit and couple, perhaps having greater confidence to drive an unfamiliar vehicle on unfamiliar roads, often on the opposite side of the road,” he continues.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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