Data extracted in November 2025.
Planned update: January 2027.
Highlights
In 2024, 2.2 million vessels entered the main EU ports.
Greece recorded the largest number of vessel port calls in 2024.
The average size of vessels calling at main EU ports is estimated at 7 716 gross tonnage per vessel.
Average size of vessels calling at main ports, EU, 2009-2024
This article presents the latest statistical data on vessels traffic in main ports in the European Union (EU), the EFTA country Norway and the candidate countries Montenegro and Türkiye. This article contains data for 2024.
In 2024, 2.2 million vessels entered the main EU ports
In 2024, the number of vessels calling (handling freight or embarking and disembarking passengers) in main EU ports was estimated at 2.2 million, an increase of 2.4% from the previous year. Greece had the largest number of port calls in 2024 (488 053 vessels), followed by Italy (430 627 vessels), Denmark (301 205 vessels), Croatia (284 012 vessels), Spain (205 622 vessels) and Germany (115 012 vessels) (Table 1).
.png)
Fifteen countries recorded an increase in 2024 compared with 2023: Spain registered the largest increase (+15.7%), followed by Italy (+7.5%), Malta (+6.9%) and Poland (+5.1%), while 11 other EU countries recorded increases less than 5%. Among the remaining EU countries, Denmark registered the largest decrease (-7.8%), followed by Cyprus (-4.9%). Germany recorded the least decline by 0.4% compared with 2023.
Compared with 2014, 12 EU countries registered increases. The largest increases were recorded in Malta (+110.9%), followed by Croatia (+45.8%) and Spain (+45.4%). By contrast, the largest decreases were recorded by Finland (-25.2%), Latvia (-21.5%) and Denmark (-16.7%). The candidate country Türkiye also decreased by 6.3%.
The average size of vessels calling at main EU ports is estimated at 7 716 gross tonnage per vessel
In 2024, the estimated gross tonnage (GT) of the vessels calling in EU ports increased to 16.8 billion GT (+1.0% from the previous year). Spain recorded the largest gross tonnage of vessels calling at its main ports in 2024 with 2.84 billion GT, followed by Italy (2.78 billion GT) (Table 2).
Ten countries recorded an increase in 2024 compared with 2023. Spain registered the largest increase (+5.5%), followed by Slovenia (+5.1%), Finland and Poland (both +4.2%) and France (+3.7%). Among the remaining EU countries, Cyprus recorded the largest decrease (-20.5%), followed by Romania (-12.0%), Latvia (-9.9%), Bulgaria (-6.8%), Malta (-6.7%), the Netherlands (-4.2%) and Belgium (-4.1%), whereas the other 5 EU countries recorded a decrease of less than 3%.
Compared with 2014, all countries registered increases except Latvia, Finland and Germany (-29.8%, -4.6% and -0.7%, respectively). The largest increase was recorded by Croatia (+62.8%), followed by Poland (+60.9%) and Spain (+53.6%). Ten EU countries registered increases between 20% and 50% and the remaining EU countries registered increases less than 20%. The EFTA country Norway and also the candidate country Türkiye registered substantial increases (+129.5% and +29.4%, respectively).
.png)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mt_am_csvi)
In 2024, the average size of vessels calling at the main EU ports decreased by 1.4%, to 7 716 GT, compared with the previous year (Figure 1).
.png)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mt_am_csvi)
In 2024, Belgium remained the EU country which registered the largest average size of vessels at the main ports, followed by France and Slovenia. The candidate country Montenegro also recorded a high than average size of vessel, compared with that of the top 3 EU countries (Figure 2).
Compared with 2023, the largest increase was registered by Denmark (+6.3%), whereas the largest decrease was recorded by Cyprus (-16.4%). Among the EU countries, 19 saw increases compared with 2023, while only 3 EU countries decreased compared with 2014.
.png)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mt_am_csvi)
Vessels in the category 'Cargo, non-specialised' (which includes Ro-Ro vessels) made the highest share of calls to the main EU ports in 2024 (69.9% of the vessels and 58.9% of the gross tonnage). When based on the number of vessels, the next category was passenger vessels (19.6%), which excluded cruise passengers, followed by liquid bulk vessels (3.8%) and container vessels (3.1%) (Figure 3). When looking at the shares based on gross tonnage, container vessels came second, with 15.6%, followed by cruise passenger vessels (9.5%), liquid bulk vessels (8.1%) and dry bulk vessels (3.4%). Passenger vessels represented only 1.8% based on gross tonnage, indicating their lower size compared with the other types of vessels.
Reggio Di Calabria was the largest EU port in terms of number of vessels
The top 20 ports accounted for 29.9% of the total number of vessels in the reporting countries in 2024. The port of Reggio Di Calabria was the largest EU port in 2024, with more than 57 000 vessels (Figure 4). Fifteen ports out of the top 20 increased, compared with 2023. Among the top 20 ports in 2024, Napoli recorded the largest increase in 2024 compared with the previous year (+26.3%), followed by Porto d'Ischia (+12.1%), Mgarr- Gozo (+5.7%) and Capri (+5.4%). By contrast, Algeciras (-7.0%), Rotterdam (-2.3%), Palma de Mallorca (-1.3%), Paloukia Salaminas and Perama recorded falls in 2024 compared with 2023. Compared with 2023, only one port entered the top 20: Capri replaced Procida.
.png)
Source: Eurostat (mar_tf_qm)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
This article presents the trends in vessel traffic in the main European Union (EU) ports and also includes figures for Norway, Montenegro and Türkiye. The content is based on data collected within the legal framework for EU maritime transport statistics, i.e. Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea and later amendments. Directive 2009/42/EC is a recast of the original Council Directive 95/64/EC of 8 December 1995.
The EU aggregates in the statistics refer to the total of 22 maritime Member States. Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia have no maritime ports. Norway provides Eurostat with data as members of the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA country Liechtenstein has no maritime ports. Data for Iceland are not available as the country does not have detailed reporting of data sets and does not report data on vessels. Montenegro and Türkiye provide data as candidate countries.
'Main ports' are ports handling more than one million tonnes of goods or more than 200 000 passengers annually (however, data for some smaller ports may be included in the published results). Data are presented at level of 'statistical ports'. A statistical port consists of one or more ports, normally controlled by a single port authority, able to record ship and cargo movements.
Explanatory notes:
Please note that data can be subject to revision and latest data are available in Eurostat's online database.
Basic results and derived indicators (such as growth rates and shares in % of total) in the tables are rounded. However, the figures are based on the non-rounded original data. As a result, the sum of shares in % of total, as shown in the tables, is not necessarily equal to 100%.
Explanatory notes for countries are available in the metadata on the Eurostat website.
Starting from 2011, the figures for Spain include data for a number of minor regional ports outside the state-controlled port system. There is a break in time series from 2015 due to methodological improvement in the data reported by the Netherlands. Montenegro started to report data on vessel traffic in 2018. Detailed data on main ports are not available for Iceland, as the country has not provided detailed reporting.
Type of vessel (Figure 3):
- Liquid bulk: oil tanker, chemical tanker, LG tanker, tanker barge, other tanker.
- Dry bulk: bulk/oil carrier, bulk carrier.
- Dry cargo barge.
- Container: full container.
- Cargo, specialised: barge carrier, chemical carrier, irradiated fuel, livestock carrier, vehicle carrier, other specialised.
- Cargo, non-specialised: reefer, Ro-Ro passenger, Ro-Ro container, other Ro-Ro cargo, combination carrier general cargo/passenger, combination carrier general cargo/container, single-decker, multi-decker.
- Passenger: passenger (excluding cruise passenger vessels).
- Cruise passenger.
- Unknown type of vessel.
Special symbols used in the tables
':' not available
Context
The content of this statistical article is based on data collected within the framework of the EU maritime transport statistics Directive, i.e. Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea (OJ L141 of 6.6.2009, page 29), which is a recast of the original Council Directive 95/64 (EC) of 8 December 1995.
The basic legal act (Directive 2009/42/EC) was amended by:
- Commission Decision 2010/216/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 April 2010, OJ L 94, 15.4.2010, p. 33-40
- Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010, OJ L 325, 9.12.2010, p. 1-3
- Commission Delegated Decision 2012/186/EU of 3 February 2012 OJ L 101 of 11.4.2012 pp. 5-14.
The following legal acts include respectively the last official version of the list of ports and some dissemination aspects:
- Commission Decision 2001/423/EC of 22 May 2001 (on dissemination) OJ L 151 of 07.06.2001 p. 41
- Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2018/1007 of 25 April 2018 supplementing Directive 2009/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the list of ports and repealing Commission Decision 2008/861/EC (Text with EEA relevance.) OJ L 180, 17.7.2018, p. 29–71
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Transport, see detailed datasets:
- Maritime transport (mar)
- Maritime transport - main annual results (mar_m)
- Maritime transport - short sea shipping - main annual results (mar_s)
- Maritime transport - passengers (mar_pa)
- Maritime transport - goods (mar_go)
- Maritime transport - vessel traffic (mar_tf)
- Maritime transport - regional statistics (mar_rg)
Thematic section
Publications
Methodology
- Maritime transport (ESMS metadata file — mar_esms)
- Reference Manual on Maritime Transport Statistics
- Glossary for transport statistics - 5th edition - 2019