You may be right about the numbers in Europe but it certainly is the case in Italy where automatic cars are nowhere to be seen (except some luxury sedans). I’ll argue this is because is way more fun to drive a manual transmission.
I wasn’t talking about high end italian cars, I was talking about cars most people use in Italy. Last time I was there I forgot my driving license and was traveling with a friend from the US, we had to rent an automatic Volvo S60 for twice the price of a manual VW or fiat (automatic is rare and in premium cars)
Actually, a lot of cheaper VW group cars now come with the option of DSGs (just ordered a Skoda with a DSG).
That's an insane price difference. In Switzerland I rented an automatic (for a family member not comfortable with a manual) for only about 10% more, and they had multiple decent options. I suspect automatics may be more common here, though, particularly in the future as electric cars are gaining popularity.