A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate or license plate or licence plate, is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. All countries require registration plates for commercial road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and motorcycles, for hire. Whether they are required for other vehicles, such as bicycles, boats, or tractors, may vary by jurisdiction. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the vehicle or vehicle owner within the issuing region's vehicle register. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, while in others it is unique within a state or province. Whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. There are also electronic license plates.
Number plates in Belgium are driver specific, meaning that they are transferred to a new vehicle from the owner's previous one.
Vehicles registered in Slovakia were generally assigned to one of the districts (okres) and from 1997 until 2022, the license plate coding generally consisted of seven characters and takes the form XX-NNNLL, where XX was a two letter code corresponding to the district, NNN was a three digit number and LL were two additional letters.
The most common format for vehicle registration plates in Romania consists of black letters on white background in the format CC 12 ABC
, where CC
is a two letter county code, 12
is a two digit group, and ABC
is a three letter group. For Bucharest, the format is B 12 ABC
or B 123 ABC
, where B
is code for Bucharest city, 12
and 123
is a two or three digit group, and ABC
is a three letter group. The left side of the plate bears a blue vertical strip displaying the 12 stars of the European Union and the country code of Romania (RO). Between 1992 and 2007 the band featured the Romanian flag instead of the 12 stars. All lettering comes from the Latin alphabet.
The Italian vehicle registration plates are the compulsory alphanumeric plates used to display the registration mark of motor vehicles registered in Italy. They have existed in the country since 1897.
Austrian car number plates are mandatory vehicle registration plates displaying the registration mark of motor vehicles in Austria. They are used to verify street legality, proof of a valid liability insurance and to identify and recognise the vehicle.
Vehicle registration plates of Poland indicate the region of registration of the vehicle given the number plate.
In New Zealand, vehicle registration plates contain up to six alphanumeric characters, depending on the type of vehicle and the date of registration. To be operated on any public road, most types of motor vehicles and trailers must be registered and display the corresponding registration plate(s). One plate must be affixed to the rear of the vehicle, and except in the case of a motorcycle, moped, tractor, or trailer, a second plate must be affixed to the front of the vehicle.
Vehicle registration plates are mandatory number plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle registered in France. They have existed in the country since 1901. It is compulsory for most motor vehicles used on public roads to display them.
In Sweden, vehicle registration plates are used for most types of vehicles. They have three letters first, a space and two digits and one digit or letter after. The combination is mostly a random number and has no connection with a geographic location. The last digit is used to show what month the vehicle tax has to be paid, and before 2018 it was also used to show what month the car had to undergo vehicle inspection. Vehicles like police cars, fire trucks, public buses and trolley buses use the same type of plate as normal private cars and cannot be directly distinguished by the plate alone. Military vehicles have special plates. Part of the vehicle data is public and can be retrieved online.
Maltese registration plates are the number plates used within Malta to uniquely identify motor vehicles. Since 1995, the three letter, three number system has been in use in Malta for vehicle registration. The characters are always printed in black on a white background, and to the left one can find a blue box with the Flag of the European Union and the letter M underneath it in white. The typeface used on Maltese registration plates is FE-Schrift which is also the typeface used on German vehicle registration plates.
Montenegrin car plates have black characters on a rectangular white background, with a blue strip on the left. Car, but not motorcycle, plates follow the 520 mm x 110 mm format. The old Yugoslav plate format was phased out from 6 June 2008 in favour of this format, which is on par with the common European Union format.
Standard Bulgarian vehicle registration plates display black glyphs on a white background, together with – on the left-hand side of the plate – a blue vertical "EU strip" showing the flag of Europe and, below it, the country code for Bulgaria: BG.
Vehicle registration plates of Serbia display black alphanumeric characters on a white background with blue field placed along the left side edge.
The Portuguese vehicle registration plate system for automobiles and motorcycles is simple and sequential. The system has no link to geographical locations or similar. It is an incremental numbering system consisting of three groups of two characters, separated by dashes. This system started in 1937 with AA–10–00, which ran out on 29 February 1992. This then went on to 00–01–AA and changed to 00–AA–01 in 2005. This last sequence was exhausted early in 2020, and it was announced on 3 March that it had been replaced by the sequence AA–00–AA. Moreover, the letters W and Y, never before used, and the letter K, used only for a short-lived series for imported vehicles in 1997, are being employed in the new system, meaning that this sequence should last more than six-and-a-half times as long as the previous. At current rates that it would not need replacing at least until the end of the 21st century, but the expected lifetime of the series is stated as being forty-five years.
As of the year 2019 there are two different valid systems of vehicle registration plates in the Czech Republic.
Slovenian car number plates are vehicle registration plates found on Slovenian cars. The code for Slovenia itself is SLO. The registration plates are made of metal. On the left there is a blue bar as in other EU countries along with tamper-proof text up to 2008; the text is in black letters on a white background in Helvetica typeface. In 2008 the plates reverted to a green border used before 2004 and the old font but retaining the EU border at the left. Two plates must be present on each car - one at the front and one at the rear. In the case of motorcycles, only one plate is needed on the back of the vehicle. These plates can have different sizes, being the regional code in the first line, at the top.
Vehicle registration plates in Luxembourg bear a maximum of six characters. The standard series in use today uses a format of two letters followed by four digits. Before adoption of the current scheme, marks consisting only of digits and two digits and three numbers letters, were issued. The digit-only plates may only now be issued as a custom plate.
Since the end of the year 2000 Paraguay has required its residents to register their motor vehicles with the National Register of Vehicles and to display vehicle registration plates; this system has replaced the former one whereby plates were issued by municipal authorities, who also kept local registers.
Vehicle registration plates were used in the Soviet Union for registrations of automobiles, motorcycles, heavy machinery, special-use vehicles as well as construction equipment, military vehicles and trailers. Every vehicle registration plate contains a unique registration mark embossed on a metal plate or a plate made of other materials. All vehicles were required to display the plates on the front side and backside, with the exception of trailers and motorcycles, which were only required to display one on the backside.