pre_text: rates are still low and that a significant portion of cruise guests carried are first-time cruisers . we believe this presents an opportunity for long-term growth and a potential for increased profitability . the following table details industry market penetration rates for north america , europe and asia/pacific computed based on the number of annual cruise guests as a percentage of the total population : year north america ( 1 ) ( 2 ) europe ( 1 ) ( 3 ) asia/pacific ( 1 ) ( 4 ) .
post_text: ( 1 ) source : our estimates are based on a combination of data obtained from publicly available sources including the international monetary fund , united nations , department of economic and social affairs , cruise lines international association ( "clia" ) and g.p . wild . ( 2 ) our estimates include the united states and canada . ( 3 ) our estimates include european countries relevant to the industry ( e.g. , nordics , germany , france , italy , spain and the united kingdom ) . ( 4 ) our estimates include the southeast asia ( e.g. , singapore , thailand and the philippines ) , east asia ( e.g. , china and japan ) , south asia ( e.g . india and pakistan ) and oceanian ( e.g. , australia and fiji islands ) regions . we estimate that the global cruise fleet was served by approximately 503000 berths on approximately 298 ships at the end of 2016 . there are approximately 60 ships with an estimated 173000 berths that are expected to be placed in service in the global cruise market between 2017 and 2021 , although it is also possible that additional ships could be ordered or taken out of service during these periods . we estimate that the global cruise industry carried 24.0 million cruise guests in 2016 compared to 23.0 million cruise guests carried in 2015 and 22.0 million cruise guests carried in .
table: Year North America<sup>(1)(2)</sup> Europe<sup>(1)(3)</sup> Asia/Pacific<sup>(1)(4)</sup>
table: 2012 3.33% 1.21% 0.04%
table: 2013 3.32% 1.24% 0.05%
table: 2014 3.46% 1.23% 0.06%
table: 2015 3.36% 1.25% 0.08%
table: 2016 3.49% 1.24% 0.09%
question: Analyse this data from a financial earnings document. at the end of 2016 , what was the average number of berths per ship in the global cruise fleet?