BEIJING, Nov. 27 -- China has 244 million people licensed to drive cars, the largest number worldwide, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Thursday.

There are 264 million civil motor vehicles on roads as of present,including 154 million automobiles, next only to the United States. Now China has 15 percent of total automobiles in the world.

In addition, 22 percent of Chinese people have driving licenses, and the number of Chinese drivers will continue to surge in the next few years, the MPS said.

In the last ten years, the number of women drivers increased 11 times, while that of male drivers only rose 7.4 times. The number of people licensed to drive a car above 60 rose 38 times.