Survey No. 001 ·
Drives on the left
Every hatched country drives on the left-hand side of the road. These are the five countries that were left blank.
The five blank spots
- Japan: Japan drives on the left even though it was never part of the British Empire.
- Ireland: Ireland kept left-hand traffic after independence from the United Kingdom, so the whole island drives on the left.
- Thailand: Thailand was never colonised by a European power, yet it drives on the left like its neighbour Malaysia.
- Suriname: Suriname, a former Dutch colony, drives on the left, as does neighbouring Guyana.
- Mozambique: Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, drives on the left like the former British colonies around it.
Survey notes
Roughly a third of the world's people live in countries that drive on the left, and most of those countries were once British colonies. The exceptions make this survey: Japan, Thailand, Suriname and Mozambique were never British, and Ireland kept the habit after independence. Countries rarely switch: Sweden moved to the right in 1967, and Samoa moved to the left in 2009.
Rule and sources
Road traffic keeps to the left nationwide (as of October 2026). Each country is judged on its main territory: the United States (left-hand traffic only in the US Virgin Islands) and China (only in Hong Kong and Macau) are left out of the survey.
All 54 countries in the set: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Cyprus, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Left out of the survey (neither a blank spot nor a false lead): United States: Traffic keeps right on the US mainland; only the US Virgin Islands drive on the left. China: Traffic keeps right in mainland China; only Hong Kong and Macau drive on the left.
How it was checked: A curated list, checked against Wikidata (54 of 54 agree) and the Wikipedia article "Left- and right-hand traffic" (54 of 54 agree) on 31 October 2026; every disagreement is explained in the survey's verification log.
Sources: Left- and right-hand traffic - Wikipedia · Driving side (P1622) - Wikidata