Manuel transmission used to be the norm. The last couple of times I rented a car/got a loaner at the mechanic, I was asked if an automatic would be OK. I have met people who avoid automatics altogether. Probably because they're unsure of how to drive them. TBF the first time I test drove an automatic, the first stop I made, I was glad to be wearing my seat belt, as I was used to use left foot, push that pedal hard and then brake... My wife and I were almost climbing down from the dashboard after that.

When I said earlier that manuels used to be the norm, that's because of the emergence of EVs and PHEVs. Our EV was our first car with no clutch.

Sooo after writing that boring drivel above, I decided to look it up on the most used second hand car platform. Turns out the about half the cars registered as pure ICEs are automatics. But then sampling the search results it's evident that a lot of the cars on the first page, have been registered wrong, and are in fact hybrids. So I don't have a solid figure. I've loitered the sales floor of my mechanic for 30mins, while my car is in for diagnosics. Looks like about 3 out of last 20 or so ICEs I've looked at are automatics.

I live in the UK, I've only ever driven manuals. I know one or two people with automatics, wouldn't fancy having one myself though. I feel like the manual shift gives me more control.

Yes Europe is mostly manual. You pay a heavy premium to get a car with automatic transmission. Anecdotally, I bought a Skoda ~5 years ago and had to pay ~20% more for automatic transmission than manual.

Had a quick look at used cars here.

https://www.ooyyo.com/france/used-cars-for-sale/c=CDA31D7114D3854F111BFB6FAA651453/

Seems very much dependent on which country you're in. France seems 50/50, Germany a lot more Automatic, Belgium prefers manual. Been to Iceland a few times and that is mostly automatic. The UK is mostly manual.

I was even told that my insurance would be lower because manuals were harder to steal because so few people can drive'm.

At least in my country and in the middle of the EU, manuals are still more popular than automatic ones. Usually because no one really wants an electric cars (due to lack of infrastructure and high price), people just get the basic petrol cars with manual transmissions.

Nah, automatic are common.

The reasoning is, if you know how to drive manual you also know how to drive automatic, but not vice versa.

I'm an American living in Denmark. Everyone here knows how to drive them even if their current car is automatic. They are becoming more popular, though.