Moscow is the most congested city in the world this year, according to a 2012 Congestion Index report released by TomTom on April 4, 2013. The report compared congestion levels with 2011 data in 161 cities across five continents.

Eight of the ten cities on the list are located in Europe, which may surprise some drivers. "TomTom's Annual Congestion Index provides accurate insight into the world's most congested cities," said Ralf-Peter Sch?fer, Head of Traffic at TomTom.

The report, which included indexes such as congestion level, morning peak, evening peak, highways and non-highways, provides detailed knowledge of congestion levels in urban areas in order to help governments to make efficient decisions to deal with and avoid congestion.

Founded in 1991 in Denmark, TomTom, a world supplier of in-car location and navigation products and services, has a database of historic travel times and the most detailed and accurate real-time traffic information available.

Its traffic database contains over six trillion data measurements and grows by five billion measurements every day. TomTom collected data from its Tele Atlas business system GPS data to determine what streets were "congested."

The ten congested city in the world in 2012:

  Rome

Country:Italy                      Congestion level:33%

Morning peak: 76%           Evening peak:63%

Highways:25%                  Non-Highways:37%