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.
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1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
6 November 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
6 November 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
6 November 2025
3.1. Data description
The maritime accident data are provided to Eurostat by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). EMSA provides technical assistance and support to the European Commission and Member States in the development and implementation of EU legislation on maritime safety, pollution by ships and maritime security. It was also given operational tasks in the field of oil pollution response, vessel monitoring and in long range identification and tracking of vessels. The Agency cooperates with the Member States and the Commission and provide them with technical, operational and scientific assistance in the field of Maritime Transport Accidents Statistics, as agreed in the Administrative Arrangement between Eurostat and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).
The statistics are grouped according to journey segment (arrival, departure, mid-water or transit) and type of vessels, (cargo ship, passenger ship or fishing vessel). Only data related to moving vessels (and over 15 meters for fishing vessels) are provided to Eurostat. EMSA collects, manages and is responsible for the entire data collection. The data made available by Eurostat are also available from EMSA. In Eurobase, the following data are published:
Maritime accident victims by sea basin of occurrence and country of registration of vessels (tran_sf_marv);
Maritime accident victims by sea basin of occurrence, country of registration of vessels and category of victims (tran_sf_marvper);
Maritime accident victims by sea basin of occurrence, country of registration of vessels and type of vessels (tran_sf_marves).
The 2025 edition of the Annual Overview of Marine casualties and incidents, produced by EMSA, covers almost all maritime activities; from the passengers transport, to fishing vessels, and incidents that occurred. Accidents related to inland waterways vessel are excluded from Eurobase tables.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
EMCIP is the European Marine Casualty Information Platform of EMSA; a centralised database for EU States to store and analyse information on marine casualties and incidents provided by the competent national authorities. Data are reported by the accident investigation bodies of the EU Member States, Norway and Iceland as foreseen by Directive 2009/18/EC.
A marine casualty means an event, or a sequence of events, that has resulted in any of the following, which has occurred directly in connection with the operations of a ship:
the death of, or serious injury to, a person;
the loss of a person from a ship;
the loss, presumed loss or abandonment of a ship;
material damage to a ship;
the stranding or disabling of a ship, or the involvement of a ship in a collision;
material damage to marine infrastructure external to a ship, that could seriously endanger the safety of the ship, another ship or an individual;or
severe damage to the environment, or the potential for severe damage to the environment, brought about by the damage of a ship or ships.
However, a marine casualty does not include a deliberate act or omission, with the intention to cause harm to the safety of a ship, an individual or the environment.
Flag State means a State whose flag a ship is entitled to fly.
In the various Eurobase tables, the dimension VICTIM has two positions:
• KIL corresponds to persons which lost their lives in a maritime accident.
• INJ corresponds to persons that sustained injuries in a maritime accident.
Category of persons includes:
Crew members/seafarers - any person who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board a ship;
Passengers;
Others - for example persons working in harbours to load or unload ships.
The ship type is decided according to the ship’s main activity:
Cargo ship is a commercial ship designed for the carriage of various types of cargo, goods or products and up to a maximum of 12 passengers.
Fishing vessel is a vessel equipped or used commercially for catching fish or other living resources at sea.
Passenger ship is a ship designed to transport more than 12 passengers.
Service ship is a ship designed for special services, like a tug or a dredger.
Other ship, may be:
Inland waterway vessel is a vessel intended solely or mainly for navigation on inland waterways.
Recreational craft is a boat of any type, regardless of the means of propulsion, intended for sports or leisure purposes.
Navy ship is a ship operating under the Navy or other military organization.
Unknown ship type: occurrence for which it was not possible to identify the vessel type.
The dimension C_REGIS (country of registration of vessel) contains the position OTH: the accident did not occur in one of the EMSA Member States but elsewhere in the world, involving a vessel registered in one of the EMSA Member States.
3.5. Statistical unit
The data used in the domain are collected by the national accident investigative bodies of the EU Member States at accident level and reported in EMCIP.
3.6. Statistical population
All accidents recorded by the responsible national authorities.
3.7. Reference area
The EMSA countries cover the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland and Norway.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The data available in the Eurobase tables are available from 2011 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The unit of measure is the number of persons who sustained minor or serious injuries or that were killed in maritime accidents.
Data in Eurobase are available on annual basis.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency.
Directive 2009/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 establishing the fundamental principles governing the investigation of accidents in the maritime transport sector and amending Council Directive 1999/35/EC and Directive 2002/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)
Administrative Arrangement between the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), regarding the technical cooperation in the field of Maritime Transport Accidents Statistics signed on March 29, 2017.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Individual States will not be mentioned and information related to flag of the ship or the Coastal State when relevant will be grouped under three categories: EU and EFTA MS, Non-EU countries and Unknown (if relevant). EMSA is responsible for the grouping while EUROSTAT is responsible for the overall aggregation of the data.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Detailed country data are confidential are not disseminated.
8.1. Release calendar
Not available.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not available.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Dissemination format') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data is disseminated on an annual basis.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
News item is published on Eurostat website on the date of update of the Statistics Explained article.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
A Statistics Explained article is published and updated once a year, when yearly validated data are made available by EMSA.
Report prepared by EMSA: 'Annual Overview of Marine Casualties and Incidents', which contains the information that is available through the Eurobase tables but also a section with definitions, is available online.
The information on maritime accidents is of high level, and due to its relative rarity, these do not need statistical testing. In its cooperation with the EMSA, it was agreed that Eurostat would not alter the EMSA data received.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
No information available.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Statistics on maritime accident injuries and fatalities are available broken down by region of occurrences, flag state, voyage segment or type of vessels.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
Reporting from all EMSA Member States is expected.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall accuracy of data is very good as the same concepts and definitions are applied by all reporting Member States.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
EMSA publishes its data and makes them available to Eurostat around 10 months after the end of the reference period.
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data. Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated and transmitted by EMSA.
Data may be published even if they are flagged as provisional for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once they are validated and transmitted by EMSA. Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated.
18.1. Source data
Data are collected and/or compiled by the National accident investigation bodies at single accident level. Information is then transmitted to the EMSA.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual data are collected from the national authorities.
18.3. Data collection
For the EMSA data available in Eurobase, data are made available by the EMSA as an annual extraction from their database.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation procedures are applied by EMSA.
18.5. Data compilation
Data compilation is performed by EMSA. EU aggregates are calculated by Eurostat.
18.6. Adjustment
Not available.
No specific comments.
The maritime accident data are provided to Eurostat by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). EMSA provides technical assistance and support to the European Commission and Member States in the development and implementation of EU legislation on maritime safety, pollution by ships and maritime security. It was also given operational tasks in the field of oil pollution response, vessel monitoring and in long range identification and tracking of vessels. The Agency cooperates with the Member States and the Commission and provide them with technical, operational and scientific assistance in the field of Maritime Transport Accidents Statistics, as agreed in the Administrative Arrangement between Eurostat and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).
The statistics are grouped according to journey segment (arrival, departure, mid-water or transit) and type of vessels, (cargo ship, passenger ship or fishing vessel). Only data related to moving vessels (and over 15 meters for fishing vessels) are provided to Eurostat. EMSA collects, manages and is responsible for the entire data collection. The data made available by Eurostat are also available from EMSA. In Eurobase, the following data are published:
Maritime accident victims by sea basin of occurrence and country of registration of vessels (tran_sf_marv);
Maritime accident victims by sea basin of occurrence, country of registration of vessels and category of victims (tran_sf_marvper);
Maritime accident victims by sea basin of occurrence, country of registration of vessels and type of vessels (tran_sf_marves).
6 November 2025
EMCIP is the European Marine Casualty Information Platform of EMSA; a centralised database for EU States to store and analyse information on marine casualties and incidents provided by the competent national authorities. Data are reported by the accident investigation bodies of the EU Member States, Norway and Iceland as foreseen by Directive 2009/18/EC.
A marine casualty means an event, or a sequence of events, that has resulted in any of the following, which has occurred directly in connection with the operations of a ship:
the death of, or serious injury to, a person;
the loss of a person from a ship;
the loss, presumed loss or abandonment of a ship;
material damage to a ship;
the stranding or disabling of a ship, or the involvement of a ship in a collision;
material damage to marine infrastructure external to a ship, that could seriously endanger the safety of the ship, another ship or an individual;or
severe damage to the environment, or the potential for severe damage to the environment, brought about by the damage of a ship or ships.
However, a marine casualty does not include a deliberate act or omission, with the intention to cause harm to the safety of a ship, an individual or the environment.
Flag State means a State whose flag a ship is entitled to fly.
In the various Eurobase tables, the dimension VICTIM has two positions:
• KIL corresponds to persons which lost their lives in a maritime accident.
• INJ corresponds to persons that sustained injuries in a maritime accident.
Category of persons includes:
Crew members/seafarers - any person who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board a ship;
Passengers;
Others - for example persons working in harbours to load or unload ships.
The ship type is decided according to the ship’s main activity:
Cargo ship is a commercial ship designed for the carriage of various types of cargo, goods or products and up to a maximum of 12 passengers.
Fishing vessel is a vessel equipped or used commercially for catching fish or other living resources at sea.
Passenger ship is a ship designed to transport more than 12 passengers.
Service ship is a ship designed for special services, like a tug or a dredger.
Other ship, may be:
Inland waterway vessel is a vessel intended solely or mainly for navigation on inland waterways.
Recreational craft is a boat of any type, regardless of the means of propulsion, intended for sports or leisure purposes.
Navy ship is a ship operating under the Navy or other military organization.
Unknown ship type: occurrence for which it was not possible to identify the vessel type.
The dimension C_REGIS (country of registration of vessel) contains the position OTH: the accident did not occur in one of the EMSA Member States but elsewhere in the world, involving a vessel registered in one of the EMSA Member States.
The data used in the domain are collected by the national accident investigative bodies of the EU Member States at accident level and reported in EMCIP.
All accidents recorded by the responsible national authorities.
The EMSA countries cover the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland and Norway.
Data in Eurobase are available on annual basis.
Overall accuracy of data is very good as the same concepts and definitions are applied by all reporting Member States.
The unit of measure is the number of persons who sustained minor or serious injuries or that were killed in maritime accidents.
Data compilation is performed by EMSA. EU aggregates are calculated by Eurostat.
Data are collected and/or compiled by the National accident investigation bodies at single accident level. Information is then transmitted to the EMSA.
Data is disseminated on an annual basis.
EMSA publishes its data and makes them available to Eurostat around 10 months after the end of the reference period.
