How do countries around the world allow registration of number plates according to individual needs?

Australia

Individual number plates are sold by automobile regulators in each Australian territory. The driver must pay a few hundred dollars for the registration number selected and then pay an annual fee to keep the number plate. License plate ownership cannot be sold or transferred by private individuals.

Some states, such as Victoria and Queensland, use the proceeds from the sale of personalized number plates for road safety operations.

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Individual number plates in Austria have a different format from the usual registration numbers issued to vehicles. This is to be able to distinguish two types of license plates. Owners of the car can buy a personal license plate for just 245 euros (at the time of writing in 2015).

Belgium

Belgium has a system of number plates that are registered for individuals, not for vehicles. This means that if you buy a new car, you must exchange the license plate you already have for this vehicle.

Personalized number plates are becoming more and more popular in Belgium and that has led to the introduction of a new format by the Belgian government with a higher price tag (1,000 euros instead of the usual 620 euros).

The new format essentially allows drivers to have any unique number plate up to 9 characters long, however there are limitations such as not being able to have only numbers, for example “1”, “11” , “111”… Of course, vulgar/offensive number plates are prohibited.

Canada

Personalized Canadian number plates called “Prestige Plates” or “Vanity Plates” are established and issued by localities.Locals decide everything from cost to what is and is not allowed to appear on Normally, drivers only need a few hundred dollars to choose a license plate for themselves.

More popular than “Prestige Plates” or “Vanity Plates” are “Speciality Plates” – license plates with different backgrounds and designs to suit the personality and taste of the vehicle owner. For example, if you love a certain football team, you may have the team’s logo on your license plate.

South Africa

Personalized number plates are popular in South Africa with some plates going up to 10,000 South African Rand ($637,704). Once purchased, the user also has to pay an annual fee to maintain the subscription right, which can be 200 – 300 South African Rand ($12.76-19.23).

South African license plates can be between 1-6 characters and can include letters, numbers and spaces. In addition, there will be two letter codes indicating the province in which the vehicle is registered. For example, the letters “WP” indicate that the vehicle is registered in the “Western Cape province”.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The UAE has an interesting system based on auctions, which sell special number plates. The normal UAE license plate consists of 5 digits and an optional 6th digit depending on which emirate the vehicle is registered in.

A special number plate is any combination of this format that can appear in bulk (like 12345, 55555…) as well as any plate with fewer digits. This special license plate format means that plates like “1” are available and cost 52.2 million Dirhams ($14,211,428).

These special signs attracted a lot of interest and were sold at auction. The above-mentioned number 1 plate was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed, Emir of Dubai.