New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that licensed vehicles travelled a total of 47.5 billion kilometres last year. On average, each private car travelled 16,990km.
The figures are contained in the CSO's Transport Omnibus for 2018, which is a comprehensive picture of transport activity in Ireland.
It is based on data published by the CSO during the year as well as official statistics from other governing bodies.
Today's figures show that a total of 36.6 million passengers passed through Irish airports last year - an increase of 6% - while 13,264 trading vessels arrived in Irish ports.
They also reveal that a total of 226.7 million passengers were carried on scheduled bus services, 48 million people travelled by rail and 41.8 million journeys were made on the Dublin Luas lines in 2018 - all higher than the previous year.
Meanwhile, Irish registered goods vehicles made 13.4 million laden journeys last year and transported a total of 150 million tonnes of freight.
The largest commodity group transported by registered goods vehicles was quarry products, metal ores & peat, while the greatest share of total freight activity in terms of tonne-kilometres related to the carriage of foodstuffs.
Today's CSO figures also show that a total of 2,907,192 Irish driving licences were held at the end of 2018, of which 8.3% were learner permit licences.
It also noted that a total of 136,316 driving tests were conducted in 2018 with an average pass rate of 52.5%. The average waiting time for a test decreased from 13.6 weeks to 11.4 weeks.
Over 1.3 million cars underwent the National Car Test (NCT) last year, with 50.8% failing the initial test, but 95.7% of cars passing after one or more tests.
Last year also saw a total of 177,092 penalty point endorsement notices being issued. The CSO said there were 798 drivers with 12 penalty points on their licences at the end of 2018.
