Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Inland waterway transport statistics provides information on the volume and performance of freight transport on EU inland waterway network. They are reported on the basis of the "territoriality principle" which means that each country reports the loading, unloading and movements of goods that take place on its national territory, irrespective of country of origins of undertakings or place of first loading and final unloading. Data for IWW goods transport is stored for each ship call and is saved continuously.
The full data provision obligation includes:
annually: goods transport by type of goods, by nationality of vessels and by type of vessel as well as container transport by type of goods;
quarterly: goods and container transport by nationality of vessels.
In addition, the legislation foresees voluntary annual data on vessel traffic. Voluntary annual data on the transport of dangerous goods and the number of accidents has been agreed with the reporting countries.
In summary, the statistics transmitted to Eurostat on inland waterway transport:
Transport of goods (annual and quarterly mandatory data provision);
Vessel traffic (annual voluntary data provision);
Transport of dangerous goods (annual voluntary data provision)
Number of accidents (annual voluntary data provision).
3.2. Classification system
Sweden follows the classifications system set up in the Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics.
Country and NUTS codes
Territorial units like reporting country and regions for loading/unloading are coded according to NUTS classification for those units covered by NUTS Regulation and to ISO 3166 for the rest (e.g. territorial units outside EU). The used version of NUTS always corresponds to the version in use and no conversion to previous version is required. For instance, NUTS 2006 is used for 2008 to 2011 data, NUTS 2010 for 2012 to 2014 data, NUTS 2013 for 2015 to 2017 and NUTS 2016 for 2018 to 2020, NUTS 2021 for 2021 to 2023 and NUTS 2024 for 2024 until next NUTS Regulation.
The level of detail is either NUTS0 – for reporting country – or NUTS2 (basic regions, 4 digits) – for regions. When using ISO 3166 and 4-digits level coding is required (e.g. for regions outside EU), the two-digit ISO code followed by “ZZ” is used.
Goods classification
Prior to 2007, the types of goods reported as being transported by inland waterways were those defined by NST/R (Standard Goods for Transport Statistics). In 2007 only, the type of goods has been reported according either to the NST-2000 classification or to the NST/R classification. From 2008 onwards, only the NST2007 classification is valid as set out in Commission Regulation 1304/2007 amending Regulation 1365/2006 with respect to the establishment of NST2007 as the unique classification for transported goods in certain transport modes.
Dangerous goods are classified according to the European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN). The classes are the following:
ClassDenomination
1Explosive substances and articles 2Gases 3Flammable liquids 4.1Flammable solids, self-reactive substances and solid desensitised explosives 4.2Substances liable to spontaneous combustion 4.3Substances which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases 5.1Oxidising substances 5.2Organic peroxides 6.1Toxic substances 6.2Infectious substances 7Radioactive material 8Corrosive substances 9Miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles
3.3. Coverage - sector
Transport-commercial IWW goods transport solely within homogenous zones for dedicated IWW transport.
The Swedish government determines which are defined as inland waterways. In Sweden, the Swedish Transport Agency is the designated authority to decide on areas for inland waterways which is then adopted by the EU Commission.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The definitions covering the main concepts used in this domain are included in Article 1 and Annex II to Regulation 425/2007. The main definitions are as follows:
Navigable inland waterway: A watercourse, no part of the sea, which by natural or man-made features is suitable for navigation, primarily by inland waterway vessels. This term covers navigable rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries.
Inland waterway vessel: A floating craft designed for the carriage of goods or public transport of passengers, which navigates predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.
Nationality of the vessel: The country in which the vessel is registered.
Inland waterways transport: Any movement of goods using inland waterways vessels, which is undertaken wholly or partly in navigable inland waterways.
National inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports of a national territory irrespective of the nationality of the vessel.
International inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports located in different national territories.
Transit inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport through a national territory between two ports both located in another national territory or national territories provided that in the total journey within the national territory there is no trans-shipment.
Inland movement: any movement of goods and/or passengers to and from inland ports connected by water routes which may be made navigable by one or more lock structures.
Inland waterways traffic: Any movement of a vessel on a given navigable inland waterway.
Types of vessels:
Self-propelled barge. Any powered inland waterways freight vessel, other than self-propelled tanker barges.
Barge not self-propelled. Any unpowered inland waterways freight vessel, other than not self-propelled tanker barges. This category includes towed, pushed and pushed-towed barges.
Self-propelled tanker barge. A self-propelled barge intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
Tanker barge not self-propelled. A barge not self-propelled intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
Other goods carrying vessel. Any other known or unknown kind of inland waterways freight vessel intended for carrying goods not defined in the previous categories.
Seagoing vessel. A vessel other than those, which navigate predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.
Containers: A freight container means an article of transport equipment:
of a permanent nature and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use;
specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading;
fitted with devices permitting its ready handling, particularly its transfer from one mode of transport to another;
so designed as to be easy to fill and empty;
having a length of 20 feet or more.
The size of containers is reported according to four categories:
20 Foot ISO containers (length of 20 feet and width of 8 feet)
40 Foot ISO containers (length of 40 feet and width of 8 feet)
ISO containers over 20 feet and under 40 feet in length
ISO containers over 40 feet long
Containers smaller than 20 feet are reported under Category 1.
Containers of unknown size are reported under Category 3.
Inland waterways accidents: specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event caused by, or in connection with, the operation of an inland waterways vessel resulting in an inland waterways casualty or incident which occurs at a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effect.
By definition suicides are excluded, as they are a deliberate act. Because of their importance, suicide statistics should be collected separately. Terrorist and criminal acts are excluded.
Inland waterways accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods: An inland waterways accident involving a vessel carrying any of the classes of dangerous goods defined by the ADN classification
Inland waterway traffic: any movement of an IWT vessel on a given IWT network.When a vessel is being carried on another vehicle, only the movement of the carrying vehicle (active mode) is taken into account.
Inland waterway journey: any movement of an IW vessel from a specified point of origin to a specified point of destination.
Vessel calls are collected at indivdual port level.
3.6. Statistical population
Sweden follows the definitions of the Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics.
The population consists of all vessel callls carrried out solely on inland waterways transport on a national territory over one year, irrespective of their country of origins or place of first loading and final unloading.
3.7. Reference area
Swedish national IWW ports located in the dedicated IWW zones. From and with survey year 2022, the zones for inland waterways have been expanded, to in addition to those demarcated Göta älv, lake Vänern and lake Mälaren also include archipelago areas and coastal areas traffic along the West and East coasts. For simplicity, a general definition is applied as means that all traffic within the respective zone is counted as IVV traffic. Applicable areas from and including year 2022 can be found on the following page, see Zoner inlandssjöfart - Transportstyrelsen (in swedish)
3.8. Coverage - Time
Annual and quarterly data are available for mandatory datasets from reference year 2022. Before 2022 Sweden has transmitted the annual dataset E1 for goods transport meassured in tonnes and tonnes-kilometres brokes down by type of transport (only national) and by type of goods.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of tonnes loaded, tonnes-km, number of TEU and TEU-km.
Data is disseminated using the following units of measure:
1000T: Thousands of tonnes
MIO_TKM: Millions of tonnes/km (the transport of one tonne by inland waterways over one kilometre)
TEU: Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (a unit of volume used in maritime transport statistics equivalent to a 20-foot ISO container )
1000 TEU_KM: Thousands of TEUs/Km (the transport of one twenty-foot equivalent unit over one kilometre )
Reference period is the calender year and the quarters of 2024.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
National level:
The data are collected within the framework of the national Swedish official statistics.
The data collection is regulated by Transport analysis regulation: kamfs-trafafs_2012 (in swedish).
European level:
Until 2021 data is reported annualy on a voluntary basis and only for dataset E1 with tonnes and tonnes-km divided by type of transport (national) and type of goods. From 2022 all the mandatory datasets are reported quarterly and annualy.
The current regulation is Regulation (EU) 2018/974 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways. Regulation (EU) 2018/974 repealed Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 (Annex II) and its amending legal acts whilst the implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 425/2007 (Annex III) remains in force.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
European level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
The procedures with regard to statistical confidentiality follows the Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control (2015), Handbok i statistisk röjandekontroll (scb.se) (only in Swedish).
Data confidentiality problems:
The collection procedure works well, but due to the Swedish confidentiality legislation concerning company information, there is a limited publication of information at the port level. Before publication of information from privately owned ports consent from the individual port is required.
Guidelines for the Swedish official statistics are issued by the National Statistical Insitute (NSI), Statistics Sweden. Fore more information, please visit Official Statistics of Sweden.
Quarterly and annually.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
There are no press or news releases for the publications, only at the national level.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Inland Waterways statistics are used in Eurostat publications, for example in “Statistics explained”
Inland waterways data are also used at the national level in a Transport analysis publication similar to "Statistics explained" (only in Swedish).
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Annual data on inland waterways statistics may be retrieved from Transport analysis Swedish on-line database: Sjötrafik (only in Swedish).
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Microdata are disseminated for researchers and other statistical agencies. An application for is accesssible from here, Utlämnande av mikrodata
10.5. Dissemination format - other
No other formats.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A documentation with Meta information (Definitions, methods, quality) on Maritime and Inland Waterways Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish): Shipping goods
10.7. Quality management - documentation
A documentation with Meta information (Definitions, methods, quality) on Martime and Inland Waterway Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish): Shipping goods
11.1. Quality assurance
The general quality assurance framework (or similar) and brief description how it is implemented for the domain-specific quality assurance activities (the use of best practices, quality reviews, self-assessments, compliance monitoring etc.) is found here: Official Statistics of Sweden
This includes an annual evulation of the quality and councils with main users.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Annual national evaluation of the statistics. Known quality deficits are incomplete information about the type of goods (around 30% are unidentified goods, mainly goods in containers and goods carried in lorries).
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Among the main users are public authorities in Sweden, the Swedish government and parliament, representatives from the transportation industry, researchers and journalists. The statistics is used to describe the evolution of the maritime sector alone, with comparison to other transport modes and with comparisons to other countries.
Users requests include geographical breakdowns by port and by passenger route. Statistics with detailed geographical breakdowns, eg. by port or route, may not be satisfied due to confidentiality reasons.
There is an increasing demand for information about the environmental aspects of the traffic and the vessels. Sweden is planning to investigate variables from international vessel registers to be used for this purpose.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Sweden conduct satisfaction surveys and arrange physical meetings with main users on a regular basis. The results of these consultation are to possible extent taken into consideration in the development of the statistics. The results of the satisfactions surveys are mirrored in chapter 12.1.
12.3. Completeness
The data collection on inland waterways statistics follows the provisions of the EU Regulation. Sweden started to provide mandatory data from 2022 according to the regulation.
Additional needs expressed by data users - at the present it is not possible to identify the true origin/destination for vessels calling Swedish ports, only "the next port".
13.1. Accuracy - overall
National level:
The overall quality is good. The statistics is based on census from all Swedish ports with commercial vessel calls rather than a sample of calls.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable
13.3. Non-sampling error
Assessed to be small and of minor importance. There is no or limited non-ressponse. Administrative registers are used for information about the vessels.
The expansion of the inland waterway zones has meant that it is more difficult to demarcate traffic between ports within the same zone, as the ship can partially go outside the zone at sea. It requires knowledge of the ships' routes continuously to exclude such ships that go out to sea from The IVV report. There may also be ships moving between the zones that should be counted like IVV but which by definition within the same zone does not. The expansion of the zones has thus meant problems with over-coverage in the part of the statistics relating to the inland waterways but also that certain traffic is underestimated and instead counted in the maritime part.
14.1. Timeliness
The statistics are published as soon as the data from the Swedish ports are available for statistical compilation. All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation are transmitted to Eurostat as soon as possible after the reference quarter or reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
The statistics are published on time according to the relaese plan. The data are transmitted to Eurostat according to the Regulation.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The statistics are harmonized within the European statistical system.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Time series from and including 2017 are also available on the Swedish home page: Shipping goods.
The new expanded IWW zones that were introduced from and including the survey year 2022 introduced a time series break.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
International standard classifications are used. Statistical measures may be compared to statistical measures in other transport statistics, for example amount of goods loaded/unloaded and number of passengers. The comparisons with other transport modes is sometimes difficult due to various definitions.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Sufficient quality. The national and European publications are based on the same data source and should be internally consistent.
The data collection and production of the statistics are an integrated part of the maritime transport statistics. There is no separate cost and burden accounting for the Inland waterways statistics.
Efforts have recently been made to reduce the response burden. Register based information about the vessels has partly been replaced the mandatory data collection from the Swedish ports. Variables not requested and of insuffiicient quality have been removed from the questionnaire.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The policy follow the guidelines issued by Statistics Sweden (National Staistical Insitute) "Guidelines and routines for revisions of statistical values", Riktlinjer för revideringar av statistikvärden (only in Swedish).
The quarterly statistics are preliminary and subject to minor revisions until the annual statistics is released. The annual statistics is normally final and not subject to revisions.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The revisions are small and due to wrong or incomplete reporting of port calls.
18.1. Source data
Data sources consist of reports from Swedish ports combined with recent data from international vessel registers for information about vessel characteristics.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data from ports are collected quarterly and data from international vessel register on annual basis.
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected via web questionnaire or uploaded standardized data files. Validation checks are embedded in the electronic data collection tool. Training sessions are provided to the reporting ports.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation procedure : Automatic checks are implemented. Errors are communicated with reporting port. Description of consistency checks : Manual comparisons with other data sources and historical data.
18.5. Data compilation
After various plausibility checks, the data received from the ports are compiled into annual data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by the regulation.
Data codification practices : There is no problem using the codes. Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: There is no problem on data compilation, validation and delivery.
There is no non-response at the port level. Non respone for certain variables is very rare.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
No comment.
Inland waterway transport statistics provides information on the volume and performance of freight transport on EU inland waterway network. They are reported on the basis of the "territoriality principle" which means that each country reports the loading, unloading and movements of goods that take place on its national territory, irrespective of country of origins of undertakings or place of first loading and final unloading. Data for IWW goods transport is stored for each ship call and is saved continuously.
The full data provision obligation includes:
annually: goods transport by type of goods, by nationality of vessels and by type of vessel as well as container transport by type of goods;
quarterly: goods and container transport by nationality of vessels.
In addition, the legislation foresees voluntary annual data on vessel traffic. Voluntary annual data on the transport of dangerous goods and the number of accidents has been agreed with the reporting countries.
In summary, the statistics transmitted to Eurostat on inland waterway transport:
Transport of goods (annual and quarterly mandatory data provision);
Vessel traffic (annual voluntary data provision);
Transport of dangerous goods (annual voluntary data provision)
Number of accidents (annual voluntary data provision).
6 August 2025
The definitions covering the main concepts used in this domain are included in Article 1 and Annex II to Regulation 425/2007. The main definitions are as follows:
Navigable inland waterway: A watercourse, no part of the sea, which by natural or man-made features is suitable for navigation, primarily by inland waterway vessels. This term covers navigable rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries.
Inland waterway vessel: A floating craft designed for the carriage of goods or public transport of passengers, which navigates predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.
Nationality of the vessel: The country in which the vessel is registered.
Inland waterways transport: Any movement of goods using inland waterways vessels, which is undertaken wholly or partly in navigable inland waterways.
National inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports of a national territory irrespective of the nationality of the vessel.
International inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports located in different national territories.
Transit inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport through a national territory between two ports both located in another national territory or national territories provided that in the total journey within the national territory there is no trans-shipment.
Inland movement: any movement of goods and/or passengers to and from inland ports connected by water routes which may be made navigable by one or more lock structures.
Inland waterways traffic: Any movement of a vessel on a given navigable inland waterway.
Types of vessels:
Self-propelled barge. Any powered inland waterways freight vessel, other than self-propelled tanker barges.
Barge not self-propelled. Any unpowered inland waterways freight vessel, other than not self-propelled tanker barges. This category includes towed, pushed and pushed-towed barges.
Self-propelled tanker barge. A self-propelled barge intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
Tanker barge not self-propelled. A barge not self-propelled intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
Other goods carrying vessel. Any other known or unknown kind of inland waterways freight vessel intended for carrying goods not defined in the previous categories.
Seagoing vessel. A vessel other than those, which navigate predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.
Containers: A freight container means an article of transport equipment:
of a permanent nature and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use;
specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading;
fitted with devices permitting its ready handling, particularly its transfer from one mode of transport to another;
so designed as to be easy to fill and empty;
having a length of 20 feet or more.
The size of containers is reported according to four categories:
20 Foot ISO containers (length of 20 feet and width of 8 feet)
40 Foot ISO containers (length of 40 feet and width of 8 feet)
ISO containers over 20 feet and under 40 feet in length
ISO containers over 40 feet long
Containers smaller than 20 feet are reported under Category 1.
Containers of unknown size are reported under Category 3.
Inland waterways accidents: specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event caused by, or in connection with, the operation of an inland waterways vessel resulting in an inland waterways casualty or incident which occurs at a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effect.
By definition suicides are excluded, as they are a deliberate act. Because of their importance, suicide statistics should be collected separately. Terrorist and criminal acts are excluded.
Inland waterways accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods: An inland waterways accident involving a vessel carrying any of the classes of dangerous goods defined by the ADN classification
Inland waterway traffic: any movement of an IWT vessel on a given IWT network.When a vessel is being carried on another vehicle, only the movement of the carrying vehicle (active mode) is taken into account.
Inland waterway journey: any movement of an IW vessel from a specified point of origin to a specified point of destination.
Vessel calls are collected at indivdual port level.
Sweden follows the definitions of the Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics.
The population consists of all vessel callls carrried out solely on inland waterways transport on a national territory over one year, irrespective of their country of origins or place of first loading and final unloading.
Swedish national IWW ports located in the dedicated IWW zones. From and with survey year 2022, the zones for inland waterways have been expanded, to in addition to those demarcated Göta älv, lake Vänern and lake Mälaren also include archipelago areas and coastal areas traffic along the West and East coasts. For simplicity, a general definition is applied as means that all traffic within the respective zone is counted as IVV traffic. Applicable areas from and including year 2022 can be found on the following page, see Zoner inlandssjöfart - Transportstyrelsen (in swedish)
Reference period is the calender year and the quarters of 2024.
National level:
The overall quality is good. The statistics is based on census from all Swedish ports with commercial vessel calls rather than a sample of calls.
The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of tonnes loaded, tonnes-km, number of TEU and TEU-km.
Data is disseminated using the following units of measure:
1000T: Thousands of tonnes
MIO_TKM: Millions of tonnes/km (the transport of one tonne by inland waterways over one kilometre)
TEU: Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (a unit of volume used in maritime transport statistics equivalent to a 20-foot ISO container )
1000 TEU_KM: Thousands of TEUs/Km (the transport of one twenty-foot equivalent unit over one kilometre )
After various plausibility checks, the data received from the ports are compiled into annual data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by the regulation.
Data codification practices : There is no problem using the codes. Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery: There is no problem on data compilation, validation and delivery.
There is no non-response at the port level. Non respone for certain variables is very rare.
Data sources consist of reports from Swedish ports combined with recent data from international vessel registers for information about vessel characteristics.
Quarterly and annually.
The statistics are published as soon as the data from the Swedish ports are available for statistical compilation. All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation are transmitted to Eurostat as soon as possible after the reference quarter or reference year.
The statistics are harmonized within the European statistical system.
Time series from and including 2017 are also available on the Swedish home page: Shipping goods.
The new expanded IWW zones that were introduced from and including the survey year 2022 introduced a time series break.
