Inland waterways transport

The following information is available in the database:

• length of navigable inland waterways
• number of vessels by type, age, and load capacity
• expenditure on inland waterway transport infrastructure and freight vessels

Information comes from the annual voluntary data collection titled ‘Eurostat / ITF / UNECE common questionnaire on inland transport statistics’. 

Data are published approximately 12 months after the end of the reference year. If necessary, data revisions are made 3 months after the initial release.

The following information is available in the database: 

• goods transport by type of goods, type of cargo, and vessel nationality 
• vessel traffic 
• container transport 
• dangerous goods transport
• accidents. 

EU countries are obliged to provide data to Eurostat if the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways exceeds 1 million tonnes. 

Currently, 13 EU countries are obliged to supply these data, these are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden. Czechia, Finland, Italy, and Lithuania provide data on a voluntary basis. 

Please note that Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Malta, and Slovenia have no inland waterways. 

Amongst non-EU countries, Serbia provides data on a voluntary basis. 

The following data are collected annually:

• goods transport by type of goods
• transport by nationality of the vessel and type of vessel
• vessel traffic
• container transport by type of goods

and the following data are collected quarterly:

• transport by nationality of vessels 
• container transport by nationality of vessels.

Data for each country are published as soon as Eurostat receives and checks them. For most countries, this is done before the 5-month reporting period, as set by the regulation.

The EU aggregates are published no later than 1 month after the end of the 5-month reporting period for countries.