The results are from the TomTom Traffic Index 2016, the annual report detailing the cities around the world with the most traffic congestion, which also shows that traffic congestion has risen in recent years.

The TomTom research found that drivers in the Mexican capital can expect to spend an average of 59% extra travel time stuck in traffic at any time during the day, and up to 103% in the evening peak periods when compared to a free flowing, or uncongested, situation. This adds up to 219 hours of extra travel time per year.

In second place was Bangkok, where drivers can expect to spend an average of 57% extra travel time stuck in traffic at any time during the day, followed by Istanbul with 50%. The rest of the top was made up by Rio de Janeiro (47%), Bucharest (43%), Salvador (43%), Recife (43%) and Chendu (41%).

The data also showed that traffic congestion is up by 13% globally since 2008 but there are shocking differences between continents. While North America’s traffic congestion has increased by 17%, Europe has only increased by 2%. This could be driven by economic growth in North America, and Economic depression in the rest of Europe.

In his analysis of the report, Wendell Cox, principal of Demographia, said: “There is considerable economic research indicating that the more fluid the traffic in an urban area, the greater its likely economic growth. For example, an urban area in which residents can reach 80% of the jobs in 30 minutes is likely to perform better economically than if only 70% or 60% of the jobs can be reached in that time.”

Taco van der Leij, VP Marketing at TomTom Telematics, said: “Businesses with employees on the road in congested cities could clearly benefit from smart methods to cope with the effect of traffic. Through more intelligent routing and job scheduling, telematics can optimise traffic flow, meaning vehicles spend less time on the road, and by being able to tap into TomTom’s world class Traffic Services they are able to further reduce travel times.”

Ranking of the most congested cities globally in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):

Ranking of the most congested cities in Europe in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):

Ranking of the most congested cities in North America in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):