This article describes the highway systems available in selected countries.
Africa
Algeria
As of 2026, Algeria has approximately of motorways in operation.
Botswana
Botswana has a network of roads, of varied quality and capacity, totalling about . Other than these, are paved (including of motorways). The remaining are unpaved. Road distances are shown in kilometers and Botswana speed limits are indicated in kilometers per hour (kph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limits, for example trucks.
Morocco
Morocco has more than of highways. Many have been constructed from 2000 to 2015 to link major Moroccan cities. Now that Large and Medium cities have access to highways, the Moroccan highway agency is planning to link smaller cities to the network.
Nigeria
The Federal Highway System of Nigeria, also known as Trunk A national roads, connects economic and political centers within the country; in addition it links Nigeria with neighboring countries. These roads are constructed and maintained by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency. In 1974, some roads previously maintained by the states were transferred to the federal government. This created a classification called Trunk F roads. The road system in Nigeria is classified for administrative purposes as Trunk Road A, or federal roads, Trunk Road B and Trunk Road C. This system of road classification began in 1946. The Trunk Road A or federal roads are roads under the federal government ownership and they are developed and maintained by the federal government. , federal roads constitute 17% of the total road network in Nigeria.
South Africa
Colloquially, the terms freeway, highway, and motorway are used synonymously. The term expressway is not common in South Africa. A freeway, highway or motorway refers to a divided dual carriageway with limited access, and at least two lanes in either direction. A central island, usually either with drainage, foliage, or high-impact barriers, provides a visible separation between the carriageways in opposite directions. As in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Japan, South Africans drive on the left-hand side of the road and nearly all steering wheels are on the right-hand side of vehicles.
Freeways are designated with one of three labels: N (in reference to national roads), R (short for route, in reference to provincial roads), and M (in reference to metropolitan roads). This has more to do with the location of a road and its function than anything else. In addition, "N" roads usually run the length of the country over long distances, "R" roads usually inter-connect cities and towns within a province, and "M" roads carry heavy traffic in metropolitan areas. Route markings also determine who paid for the road: "N" was paid for by national government, "R" by provincial government, and "M" by local government. In recent years, some "R" roads have been re-designated as "N" roads, so that control and funding comes from the South African National Roads Agency.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has one of the better road networks in Africa that had been poorly maintained until recently. There has been an introduction of toll gates and the dualization of most of the major roads.
Americas
Brazil
In Brazil, highways are called rodovia, and Brazilian highways are divided into two types: regional highways (generally of less importance and located entirely within a state) and national highways (of major importance to the country, most of which are trunk roads). In Brazil, is the name given exclusively to paved roads connecting two or more cities with a sizable distance separating the extremes of the highway. Urban highways for commuting are uncommon in Brazil, and when they are present, they receive different names, depending on the region (Avenida, Marginal, Linha, Via, Eixo, etc.). Very rarely are names other than used. Unpaved roads are called .
Regional highways are named YY-XXX, where YY is the abbreviation of the state where the highway is running in and XXX is a number (e.g. SP-280; where SP means that the highway is running entirely in the state of São Paulo).
National highways are named BR-XXX. National highways connect multiple states altogether, are of major importance to the national economy and/or connect Brazil to other countries. The meaning of the numbers are as follows: 001–100 – the highway runs radially from Brasília. It is an exception to the cases below. 101–200 – the highway runs in a south–north direction. 201–300 – the highway runs in a west–east direction 301–400 – that the highway runs in a diagonal direction (northwest–southeast, for example) 400–499 – another exception – less important highways whose function is to connect a city to an arterial highway nearby.
Often, Brazilian highways receive names (of famous people, etc.) on top of their YY/BR-XXX designation (example: SP-280 is also known as Rodovia Castelo Branco).
Canada
In Canada, there is no national standard for nomenclature, although in non-technical contexts highway appears to be most popular in most areas. The general speed limits on most Canadian highways range between and on two-lane highways rural and urban highways and between and on multi-lane, divided highways. Prairie provinces are known for having higher speed limits than Central Canada and the Maritimes because of the flat geography and more car-dominant way of life; however, British Columbia remains the only province in Canada to have a speed limit of on the Coquihalla Freeway.
Canada is the second-largest country in the world in terms of land area, though it only has of paved roads. This is far less highway and road distance than the United States, which is smaller, but has more than of paved roads and highways. However, Canada has more roads and highways than Russia, the largest country in the world in land area, with an estimated just 336,000 km (208,000 mi) of paved roads.
The most extensive freeway network in Canada is in the well-populated southeastern Canada, linking southern Ontario, southern Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the United States. This makes the freeway network there very well-travelled, requiring these routes to be well-maintained to overcome the frequently harsh winter weather, wide enough to accommodate the high traffic volumes that they carry in large metropolitan areas (such as around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Detroit) in order to reduce the economic problems and frustrations that result from heavy traffic congestion, and also be safe enough to reduce the number of vehicle accidents.
Ontario has some of the busiest freeways in North America. It has all public roads legally defined as highways, though provincially managed roads are known legally as Provincial Highways. In day-to-day usage, the term highway is used for provincial routes or freeways. It is also common for surface routes to be referred to by number (e.g. "Take Highway 10 from Mississauga to Owen Sound"), especially by older generations. The words freeway or expressway are sometimes used to refer to controlled-access, high-speed, grade-separated highways such as the 400-series highways, the Gardiner Expressway, the Don Valley Parkway, the Conestoga Parkway, or the E.C. Row Expressway. The only highway officially labelled as a freeway is the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway, usually known as Highway 401, or simply "the 401", which is North America's busiest freeway, as well as one of the widest in the world at 18 through lanes in the section passing through Toronto. The Queen Elizabeth Way was the first intercity divided highway in North America. Nearly all highways in Ontario use parclo interchanges, which were developed by the province. Parclos are used to avoid weaving and to maximize efficiency and safety.
In Quebec, major highways are called autoroutes in French, and expressways or autoroutes in English. Highways in Quebec have contributed to the spread of Phragmites australis, the common reed, as an invasive species. The common reed is particularly common among warm or agricultural areas and in highways built before the 1970s.
Nova Scotia numbers its highways by the trunk routes they parallel. For example, Highway 107 parallels Trunk 7. This, to a lesser extent, also applies in Ontario (e.g. Highway 410 and Highway 420 parallel Highway 10 and Highway 20.) Nova Scotia also numbers its highways according to usage: main arterial highways are in the 100s, secondary or old arterial highways are numbered in the double digits from 1 to 28, and collector roads are numbered in the triple digits starting at 200.
The Trans-Canada Highway (or Trans-Canada) is the longest national highway in the world. It crosses all of Canada from east to west and enters all ten provinces. The highway was initiated by 1949 Trans-Canada Highway Act, and funding began in 1951. However, the highway was not finished until 1970.
The Trans-Canada ranges from a two-lane highway as it runs through the mountains of British Columbia with occasional divided highway status as the province commits to twinning the road, a full divided highway with some sections qualifying as freeway status throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan, a mixture of both throughout Manitoba, a two-lane at-grade highway again as it passes through the sparsely populated areas of northern Ontario, and a multi-lane freeway as it travels through southern Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. There are three or more ferry routes along the Trans-Canada, which allows it to connect to Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Haida Gwaii, and Vancouver Island. The Confederation Bridge provides an alternative route from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.
Since the Trans-Canada Highway is not yet a divided, multi-lane freeway for its entire length, the section that crosses the western provinces and northern Ontario is considered to be more of an equivalent to the U.S. Route highway network in the neighboring United States. Southern Ontario's 400-series freeways, Quebec's autoroutes, New Brunswick's portion of the Trans-Canada, Nova Scotia's 100-series highways, Alberta's Ring Road system, and Saskatchewan's Ring Road system are provincial equivalents to the American Interstate Highway System. The Canadian freeways interconnect with each other across provincial lines, and also with the American Interstate system. For example, freeways in Québec connect Montreal with the American border, and thence Interstate 87 continues from there to New York City, and likewise, Toronto is connected to the border by Ontario freeways, and thence by Interstate 190 to Buffalo, New York.
The Government of British Columbia spent $1.482 billion (in today's money) on highways between 1954 and 1969. This represented between 10% and 25% of all spending by the provincial government during this period, though it varied from year to year.
Chile
Chile has significant highway coverage connecting the whole country, with the exception of the Magallanes region.
Colombia
In Colombia, highways are managed by the Colombian Ministry of Transport through the National Institute of Roads. Colombia's road infrastructure is still very underdeveloped with most of the highways presenting a two-lane road for outbound and inbound traffic. Some exceptions are the Autopista Norte, linking Bogotá and the towns of Tunja and Sogamoso and the Highways of the Valle del Cauca, an infrastructure improvement project started about a decade ago which has not yet been entirely finished. Several dual-carriage ways also link cities like Medellín, Pereira, Manizales and Armenia.