Please answer the given financial question based on the context.
Context: 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 ) .
|year|north america ( 1 ) ( 2 )|europe ( 1 ) ( 3 )|asia/pacific ( 1 ) ( 4 )|
|2012|3.33% ( 3.33 % )|1.21% ( 1.21 % )|0.04% ( 0.04 % )|
|2013|3.32% ( 3.32 % )|1.24% ( 1.24 % )|0.05% ( 0.05 % )|
|2014|3.46% ( 3.46 % )|1.23% ( 1.23 % )|0.06% ( 0.06 % )|
|2015|3.36% ( 3.36 % )|1.25% ( 1.25 % )|0.08% ( 0.08 % )|
|2016|3.49% ( 3.49 % )|1.24% ( 1.24 % )|0.09% ( 0.09 % )|
( 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 .
Question: at the end of 2016 , what was the average number of berths per ship in the global cruise fleet?


Answer: The answer is:1687.91946