Vehicle Registration Plates of Europe - Differing Numbering Systems

Differing Numbering Systems

Individual European countries use differing numbering schemes and text fonts:

• Most countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia (formerly also Italy—until October 1993—, Lithuania and Spain—until 2000—, and Albania—until 2011—), have systems in which there is a direct link between a letter or letters appearing on the plate and the town or district where the plate was issued (e.g. "B" and "M" in Germany for Berlin and Munich, "TN" and "ZV" in Slovakia for Trenčín and Zvolen, "BG" and "KG" in Serbia for Belgrade and Kragujevac and "AX" and "KY" in Greece for Achaia and Corfu). Some countries, including Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and Switzerland even include a regional or municipal coat of arms on the plate. In Ireland, all plates have the name of the county of registration in Irish Gaelic in smaller letters on the top.
• France (until 2009), Turkey and Russia use a system with an indirect number relation to the car's place of registration.
• The UK uses a system based on the region where the car was first registered and the date of registration, for example CA52 GJK, where by the "C" stands for Wales (the name of that country in Welsh being Cymru), the "A" stands for Cardiff (the letters A-O assigned to the city), and the "52" means that the car was registered in the year 2002, in or after August.
• Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden use plates that do not denote location. Since 2000 Spain no longer uses province codes on plates but codes like 'B' for Barcelona or 'M' for Madrid can still be seen, for cars registered before that date.
• Italy, since 1999, has added a blue strip on either side. On the right one are the two digits of the year when the plate was issued (e.g. "99", "05", "08") and below that there may be an optional two-letter code for the province, such as "MO" for the Province of Modena. Albania and France have adopted similar formats.