Transport statistics at regional level

Data extracted in May 2024.

Planned article update: September 2025.

Highlights

In 2022, the Dutch region of Flevoland was the only EU region where electric vehicles accounted for more than a tenth of all passenger cars; it had a share of 12.8%.

Rotterdam in the Netherlands was the busiest maritime freight port in the EU: in 2022, it handled 427 million tonnes of goods.

Source: Eurostat (tran_r_vehst), (demo_r_d2jan) and (demo_pjan)

Transport policy aims to promote environmentally friendly, safe and efficient travel, by means of integrated networks. Mobility is an enabler of economic and social life: for example, functioning global supply chains and logistical services, travel to a place of work or study, visiting family and friends, or spending time away from home for business, leisure or other purposes. The free movement of people and goods across its internal borders is one of the fundamental freedoms of the EU and its single market.

In its strategic plan for 2020–24, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport outlined several specific objectives, including

the creation of a sustainable transport area that reduces transport’s impact on the environment, provides healthier and cleaner alternatives to mobility, and increases the uptake of sustainable alternative transport fuels
a fully integrated and connected trans-European transport network for a robust and modern European transport infrastructure
high levels of transport safety and security.

The passenger car revolutionised personal mobility, granting freedom and flexibility to individual travel plans, while playing a crucial role in economic development. Cars have a cultural significance, symbolise status and progress for some people. That said, some people forego the use of a passenger car by choice. As the EU transitions towards greener technologies, the passenger car remains central to discussions on sustainability and innovation.

In 2022, there were 313 million motor vehicles registered in the EU; these vehicles include passenger cars – which accounted for approximately 4 out of every 5 motor vehicles – as well as lorries, road tractors, motorcycles, motor coaches, buses, trolley buses and special vehicles. The EU’s motorisation rate — the average number of motor vehicles per inhabitant — stood at 697 per 1 000 inhabitants.

The infographic above provides information on the EU regions with the highest motorisation rates in 2022. There were 5 NUTS level 2 regions that reported a higher number of motor vehicles than people. The 3 highest ratios were in northern Italy – Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste (3 085 vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants), Provincia Autonoma di Trento (1 821) and Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen (1 198). These statistics may reflect specific circumstances, for example, the high rates in several northern Italian regions may be attributed, at least in part, to lower taxation on new vehicle registrations. The Finnish archipelago of Åland (1 138) and the Greek capital region of Attiki (1 046) also reported a higher number of motor vehicles than people in 2022.

The selection of information presented for regional transport statistics within the Eurostat regional yearbook changes on an annual basis (covering different modes of transport and focusing on different passenger/freight indicators). Previous editions of the publication can be found here.

Full article

Road transport and accidents

Roads are by far the most common transport mode in the EU for passenger and inland freight transport. The EU’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future (COM(2020) 789 final) underlines that, although road mobility provides a wide range of benefits to people living in the EU, these aren’t without costs (for society at large); these externalities include, among other issues, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, accidents and congestion. The sustainable and smart mobility strategy identifies 10 flagship areas and a range of intermediate targets for 2030 and 2040 in order to help achieve the EU’s ambitious goal of becoming the ‘first climate-neutral continent by 2050’. As part of this work, the EU has set itself a target, namely, to ensure that at least 30 million zero-emission vehicles are operating on its roads by 2030.

Electric passenger cars

Across the EU, there were approximately 3 million electric cars in 2022; they accounted for 1.19% of all passenger cars. The uptake of electric passenger cars reflects, among other factors, electric vehicle prices, subsidies and incentives, infrastructure investment, battery technology, fuel prices, urban policies, the availability and cost of public transport, and environmental consciousness. Within the EU, the relative importance of electric passenger cars was high in the Benelux countries, Nordic countries, Germany and Austria. By contrast, many southern and eastern regions of the EU had very low shares of electric cars.

In 2022, the regional distribution of the share of electric cars in all passenger cars was skewed insofar as almost 2 in 3 NUTS regions for which data are available (126 out of 191) reported a share that was below the EU average, while just over 1 in 3 (34.0%) of regions had rates above the average. Map 1 shows that the share of electric cars in all passenger cars was relatively homogeneous in most EU countries, highlighting that aspects such as national subsidies / incentives within EU countries or the environmental consciousness of consumers likely play an important role in determining the uptake of these vehicles.

There were 20 regions where electric cars accounted for at least 2.50% of all passenger cars in 2022 (as shown by the darkest shade of blue in Map 1). A majority of these 20 regions were concentrated in the Netherlands (8 regions) and Sweden (5 regions), while Austria was the only other country in the EU to report more than 1 region above this threshold.

At the top end of the distribution, the Dutch region of Flevoland was the only EU region where electric cars accounted for more than a tenth of all passenger cars in 2022; it had a share of 12.77%. This was almost twice as high as in any other region of the EU; the next highest shares were registered in another Dutch region – Utrecht (6.64%) – and the Swedish capital region of Stockholm (6.60%). There were 4 other regions where electric cars accounted for at least 4.00% of all passenger cars: Västsverige in Sweden, 2 more regions from the Netherlands – Noord-Holland (the capital region) and Noord-Brabant – and Denmark (only national data available).

At the lower end of the distribution, there were 69 regions where electric cars accounted for less than 0.25% of all passenger cars in 2022; they are denoted by the 2 lightest shades in Map 1. This group of 69 regions included

Bulgaria (only national data available)
Cyprus
all but one of the regions in Greece (the exception was Notio Aigaio), Croatia (the exception was the capital region of Grad Zagreb), Poland (the exception was the capital region of Warszawski stołeczny) and Slovakia (the exception was the capital region of Bratislavský kraj)
and several regions in Czechia, Spain, Italy and Romania.

Map 1: Electric passenger cars, 2022
(% of all passenger cars, by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_r_elvehst) and (road_eqs_carpda)

Road freight transport

The road freight transport sector plays an essential role in transport markets and is an important component of modern economic systems, providing services that connect producers, traders and consumers.

More about the data: road freight statistics

Road freight transport statistics relate to transport by heavy goods vehicles registered in any of the EU countries. Transport by light goods vehicles is excluded. The threshold for inclusion as a heavy goods vehicle may be based on the load capacity (maximum permissible weight of goods) or the legally permissible maximum weight (the vehicle, the load, the driver and other persons carried). Some countries have a somewhat broader coverage as they apply lower inclusion thresholds.

A tonne-kilometre is a unit of measure of freight transport which represents the transport of 1 tonne of goods (including packaging and tare weights of intermodal transport units) by a given transport mode (road, rail, air, sea, inland waterways, pipeline, and so on) over a distance of 1 kilometre.

Regional statistics for road freight transport should be interpreted with care as the data presented may reflect, to some extent, the size of each region, as those regions characterised by a large area normally transport more freight. In a similar vein, those regions that are characterised by transporting bulk products that tend to weigh a lot (such as raw materials) are also likely to report higher values. The information presented in this section refers to those regions where goods were unloaded.

In 2022, the total weight of goods transported by heavy goods vehicles registered in the EU was 13.6 billion tonnes. When taking account of the distance travelled for each transport operation, the transport performance of the EU’s road freight transport sector was 1 920 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm).

In 2022, the highest levels of road freight unloaded having been transported by EU-registered vehicles were recorded in some of the most populous regions of the EU. Lombardia in northern Italy – whose capital is the city of Milan – had 42.8 billion tkm of road freight unloaded having been transported by EU-registered vehicles, while Cataluña in Spain had a similar level (42.4 billion tkm). Veneto in Italy, Andalucía and Comunitat Valenciana in Spain, Ile-de-France and Rhône-Alpes in France all recorded road freight performance within the range of 25.2–33.8 billion tkm.

When expressed in relation to the number of inhabitants living in each region, the north-eastern Spanish region of Aragón had the highest level of road freight unloaded per inhabitant (10 400 tkm in 2022); it was followed by the Swedish regions of Övre Norrland (10 000) and Mellersta Norrland (8 700). There were 17 more regions across the EU where the level of road freight unloaded having been transported by EU-registered vehicles averaged at least 7 000 tkm per inhabitant (as shown by the darkest shade of blue in Map 2)

the Belgian regions of Prov. West-Vlaanderen and Prov. Luxembourg
the Czech region of Střední Čechy
the German regions of Kassel, Bremen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Brandenburg
the Spanish regions of Castilla-La Mancha, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, Castilla y León and La Rioja
the Polish regions of Mazowiecki regionalny, Łódzkie and Lubuskie
the Finnish region of Pohjois- ja Itä-Suomi
the Swedish regions of Norra Mellansverige and Småland med öarna.

Map 2: Road freight transport, 2022
(1 000 tonne-kilometres per inhabitant, by NUTS 2 region of unloading)
Source: Eurostat (road_go_ta_ru) and (demo_r_d2jan)

Road fatalities

Whilst transport mobility brings many benefits, it isn’t without environmental and societal costs: these include greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, congestion, as well as accidents – all of which affect our health and well-being.

Within a statistical context, the number of road fatalities concerns people who were killed immediately in a traffic accident or who died within 30 days as a result of an injury sustained in a road accident. In 2022, there were 20 653 road fatalities across the EU’s territory; this equated to 46 fatalities per million inhabitants.

The EU’s roads are among the safest in the world. The European Parliament adopted a resolution in October 2021 on an EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021–30 – Recommendations on next steps towards ‘Vision Zero’ (2021/2014), which reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to reduce the number of deaths on its roads to almost zero by 2050. The strategy set an initial goal of cutting in half the number of road fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.

In 2022, the highest number of road fatalities was registered in the Italian region of Lombardia …

In 2022, the northern Italian region of Lombardia recorded the highest number of road fatalities among NUTS level 2 regions, at 402. This figure was considerably higher than in any other region of the EU, with the Italian capital region of Lazio (339 road fatalities) and the southern Spanish region of Andalucía (333 road fatalities) recording the 2nd and 3rd highest values. There were 5 other regions within the EU where the number of road fatalities was at least 300 in 2022

the southern French regions of Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
the northern Italian regions of Veneto and Emilia-Romagna
the Romanian region of Nord-Est.

At the other end of the range, there were 4 NUTS level 2 regions which recorded fewer than 10 road fatalities in 2022. The sparsely populated archipelago of Åland in Finland was the only region in the EU to report no road fatalities. The other 3 regions that had fewer than 10 road fatalities were the relatively small Spanish autonomous regions of Ciudad de Ceuta (1 fatality) and Ciudad de Melilla (4 fatalities) and the sparsely populated Swedish region of Mellersta Norrland (8 fatalities).

… while the highest incidence of road fatalities per million inhabitants was recorded in the Portuguese region of Alentejo

In 2022, there were 46 road fatalities per million inhabitants in the EU. These fatalities were quite evenly distributed insofar as 129 out of 242 NUTS level 2 regions (or 53.3% of all regions) recorded an incidence of road fatalities that was above the EU average, while 108 had a value that was below; there were 5 regions that had the same number of road fatalities per million inhabitants as the EU average.

Map 3 confirms that some of the highest incidence rates for road fatalities were recorded in rural regions of the EU. In 2022, there were 13 NUTS level 2 regions with at least 100 road fatalities per million inhabitants (as shown by the 2 darkest shades of blue in the map). This group was quite widely dispersed, with 3 outermost/island regions of France, 3 regions in Greece, 2 regions from each of Belgium, Bulgaria and Romania, and a single region from Portugal. The 3 highest ratios were recorded in regions with high tourism intensity, namely the southern Portuguese region of Alentejo (149 road fatalities per million inhabitants) and the Greek island regions of Notio Aigaio (131) and Ionia Nisia (127).

By contrast, urban and capital regions tended to report much lower incidences of road fatalities. Among other factors, this may be linked to more extensive public transport networks, lower motorisation rates and lower average speeds – there may be lower speed limits in built-up areas, while motorway networks in and around major conurbations are often congested. There were 21 NUTS level 2 regions where the incidence of road fatalities was less than 25 deaths per million inhabitants in 2022 (as shown by the yellow shade in Map 3). As noted above, there was 1 region that reported no road deaths: Åland in Finland. Leaving this atypical case aside, a majority of this group of 21 regions were characterised as urban areas, including 10 that were capital regions. After Åland (0 road fatalities per million inhabitants), the next lowest incidence rates were observed in the Swedish capital region of Stockholm (7), the Austrian capital region of Wien (9), and the German capital region of Berlin (also 9).

Map 3: Number of road fatalities, 2022
(per million inhabitants, by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_r_acci) and (tran_sf_roadus)

Road accidents

More about the data: road accident statistics

The information presented in this section on transport accidents comes from an alternative source, the Community database on road accidents (CARE), which is managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport.

The CARE database contains information on road crashes that lead to death or injury; as such, it doesn’t contain information on damage-only crashes (where there are no fatalities or injuries). Its main purpose is to provide evidence to identify and quantify road safety problems throughout the EU, to evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, to determine the relevance of EU actions and to facilitate the exchange of experiences in this field.

Road accident statistics include fatalities and injuries in vehicles which are in transit through a region as well as fatalities and injuries of non-residents staying in a region on holiday, for business or another reason. As such, and other things being equal, regions that have transit corridors or regions with high numbers of visitors may well experience a higher incidence of injuries and fatalities.

The regional statistics presented in this section for Germany concern NUTS level 1 regions, while the latest information available for the EU, Greece and Malta relates to 2021 and that for Ireland and Latvia to 2020.

In 2021, there were a provisional 813 200 crashes on the EU’s roads that resulted in a death or injury; this total excludes information for Ireland and Latvia. The 1st part of Figure 1 shows the EU regions with the highest numbers of road accidents. The top of the ranking is, unsurprisingly, dominated by some of the most populous regions in the EU. In 2022, there were 63 200 crashes that resulted in a death or injury on the roads of Nordrhein-Westfalen in western Germany, this was the highest regional count in the EU; all of the statistics presented for Germany in this section concern NUTS level 1 regions. The German capital region of Berlin had the 2nd highest number of accidents (49 400), followed by 2 more German regions – Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen – each with more than 30 000 accidents. Outside of Germany, the highest numbers of road accidents were observed in the northern Italian region of Lombardia (28 800), Cataluña in Spain (23 100) and the Italian capital region of Lazio (20 300). There were 6 regions across the EU that recorded between 15 000 and 20 000 road accidents: Hessen in Germany, Andalucía and Comunidad de Madrid in Spain, Emilia-Romagna and Toscana in Italy, and the French capital region of Ile-de-France.

The 2nd part of Figure 1 shows the incidence of road accidents in 2022. When expressed in relation to the size of the population, there were 1 820 accidents per million inhabitants across the EU. The regional distribution of road accidents was skewed insofar as approximately 40% of all regions (86 out of the 215 for which data are available) had an incidence rate that was higher than the EU average, while there were 129 regions where the incidence was lower. The highest incidences of road accidents were largely concentrated in western and southern EU countries, with relatively high values in several regions of Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium and Portugal.

The northern Italian region of Liguria had the highest incidence rate, with 5 213 road accidents per million inhabitants in 2022, closely followed by the westernmost Austrian region of Vorarlberg (5 185 per million inhabitants). There were 8 regions which recorded between 4 000 and 5 000 road accidents per million inhabitants, 5 of which were located in Austria – Tirol, Kärnten, Salzburg, Oberösterreich and Steiermark. The other 3 regions with relatively high incidence rates were Algarve in southern Portugal, Hamburg in northern Germany and Toscana in central Italy. Across all EU regions, the number of road accidents per million inhabitants ranged from a high of 5 213 in Liguria, down to a low of 172 in the central French region of Auvergne. As such, relative to the size of the population the likelihood of having a road crash that resulted in a fatality or injury in Liguria was 30 times as high as it was in Auvergne.

The final part of Figure 1 shows the incidence of road accidents (resulting in death or injury) relative to the number of motor vehicles registered in each region. In 2022, the highest rate was recorded in the German capital region of Berlin, with 9 381 road accidents per million motor vehicles. Some of the highest rates – using this measure – were recorded across several regions of Germany, Austria and Belgium. There were 7 other regions with rates above 6 000 road accidents per million motor vehicles

Hamburg (8 262) and Bremen (7 958) in Germany
Vorarlberg (7 518), Tirol (6 937) and Salzburg (6 448) in Austria
Bruxelles/Brussels (6 816) and Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen (6 201) in Belgium.

Figure 1: Number of road accidents, 2022
(by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_roadnu), (demo_r_d2jan) and (tran_r_vehst)

Rail

The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) is planned to comprise an EU-wide network of railways, inland waterways, short sea shipping routes, and roads. It aims to link major cities, ports, airports and terminals, presenting a coherent, efficient, multimodal, and high-quality transport infrastructure to foster the efficient transportation of people and goods. It is planned that the core network should be completed by 2030 and the more comprehensive network by 2050.

The TEN-T is designed to make the EU’s transport network greener, more efficient and more resilient. Within the specific domain of rail, there remain several challenges for international services that are linked to different national standards being employed for electrification, signalling or the gauge of track. For example, the Baltic countries, Ireland, Spain (for main lines, not high-speed lines), Portugal and Finland use a broader gauge than in most EU countries. The European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is a single, interoperable system designed to replace more than 20 different national train control and command systems that are currently in operation. Its deployment should enhance cross-border interoperability, creating a seamless, Europe-wide railway system.

The regional distribution of railway infrastructure is shaped by specific historical developments, economic developments and the geographical characteristics of regions. For example, some large EU countries that have considerable distances between major cities have developed high-speed rail infrastructure (for example, Germany, Spain, France or Italy). Some of the EU countries that are more densely-populated, such as Belgium or the Netherlands, have a higher frequency of (generally less rapid) trains. Several eastern EU countries have relatively extensive rail networks, reflecting a legacy from the communist era when there was often a greater reliance on rail (compared with road) for transporting passengers and/or goods.

In 2022, there were around 202 100 km of railway lines across the EU; there are no railways in Cyprus and Malta (this is also the case in Iceland). More than half (56.9%) of the EU’s railway lines (a line is made up of 1 or more tracks forming a route between 2 points) were electrified. Electrified railway lines offer a number of benefits (over diesel-powered trains running on non-electrified lines): they generally have lower operating costs, improved performance, higher energy efficiency, reduced emissions (especially if powered by renewable energy sources) and they tend to be quieter.

Within the EU, there were 6 NUTS level 2 regions where practically all (100.0%) of the railway lines were electrified in 2022. This was the case in

the Spanish regions of Comunidad Foral de Navarra, La Rioja and Illes Balears
the Dutch regions of Drenthe and Flevoland
the Croatian capital region of Grad Zagreb.

Alongside these 6 regions, there were another 8 regions where the share of electrified railway lines was at least 95.0%; together these 2 groups are shown in the darkest shade of blue in Map 4. This group of 8 regions where at least 95.0% (but not 100.0%) of all railway lines were electrified was composed of the Polish, Swedish and French capital regions, Luxembourg, the eastern Bulgarian region of Yugoiztochen, Liguria and Umbria in Italy, and the Dutch region of Utrecht.

At the other end of the range, there were 15 regions where fewer than 25.0% of all railway lines were electrified in 2022. This group of regions was widely distributed across the EU, and contained all 3 Baltic countries (only national data available): a major infrastructure project – Rail Baltica – is underway which aims to develop a double-track electrified railway linking the Polish and Baltic capital cities. There were 5 regions within the EU where none of the railway lines were electrified

the Greek regions of Anatoliki Makedonia, Thraki; Dytiki Makedonia; Dytiki Elláda
the western Spanish region of Extremadura
the French island region of Corse.

Map 4: Electrified railway lines, 2022
(% of all railway lines, by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_r_net) and (rail_if_line_tr)

Maritime traffic

The quality of life on many European islands and in peripheral maritime regions depends, to a large extent, upon the provision of maritime transport services — providing a means for passengers and freight to arrive/leave.

Maritime freight

Maritime freight services facilitate trade within the EU and between the EU and the rest of the world. Along with other products, they contribute towards the security of supply of energy and food, while providing EU exporters with a means of reaching international markets and non-EU exporters with a means of reaching EU markets; indeed, the vast majority (in tonnage) of the EU’s international freight is transported by sea.

The distribution of ports around the EU’s coastline reflects a range of influences including (among others) historical trade routes, geographic features, resource endowment, economic activities and political considerations. A large number of the EU’s main ports are concentrated along North Sea coastlines, close to some of the most densely populated regions of the EU that are served by an extensive network of motorways, railways, rivers and canals.

Map 5 shows information for the EU’s main ports in 2022: it covers ports with at least 2.0 million tonnes of freight handled (inward and outward combined).

Rotterdam in the Netherlands was, by far, the largest freight port in the EU. With 427.0 million tonnes of maritime freight handled in 2022, it accounted for 12.3% of all goods handled in EU ports. The position of Rotterdam as the EU’s leading freight port is clearly evident, as its inward and outward freight was almost twice as high as that recorded in any of the other ports in the EU. Most of the next largest freight ports were located within relatively close proximity of Rotterdam: the Belgian ports of Antwerp-Bruges (254.3 million tonnes of maritime freight handled), the German port of Hamburg (103.4 million tonnes), the Dutch capital of Amsterdam (95.5 million tonnes), and the French channel ports of HAROPA (Le Havre and Rouen; 79.1 million tonnes). Away from the North Sea, there were several relatively large freight ports located around the Mediterranean Sea: the Spanish ports of Algeciras (81.2 million tonnes) and Valencia (64.3 million tonnes), the French port of Marseille (67.0 million tonnes) and the Italian port of Trieste (64.3 million tonnes).

Map 5: Maritime freight handled, 2022
(million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd) and (mar_go_aa)

Although the overall level of maritime freight handled in EU ports increased 0.8% between 2021 and 2022, some of the EU’s principal ports experienced a decrease in their quantity of freight handled (inward and outward combined). The largest falls – among the top 20 ports in 2022 – were recorded in the Greek port of Peiraiás (-8.8%), the German ports of Bremerhaven (-8.6%) and Hamburg (-7.0%), and the Spanish port of Valencia (-7.1%). There were more modest contractions in 5 more of the top 20 ports, including a decrease of 0.4% in the largest, Rotterdam. By contrast, the fastest growth rate was recorded in the Polish port of Gdańsk, where the quantity of freight handled rose 40.3% in 2022. There were 3 other ports that recorded increases of more than 10%: Cartagena in Spain (up 17.3%), Constanța in Romania (up 15.2%) and Zeeland Seaports in the Netherlands (up 11.0%).

Most of the EU’s principal ports have higher levels of inward (rather than outward) flows of maritime freight when measured in tonnes (see Figure 2). This apparent imbalance may be explained, at least in part, by the nature of EU imports, with a relatively high share of the inward flows made-up of bulk commodities such as raw materials and energy resources. By contrast, when ships leave EU ports they are laden with different types of freight that may be less bulky / of lower weight.

In the EU’s main port, Rotterdam, inward freight flows amounted to 311.6 million tonnes in 2022, compared with outward freight flows of 115.3 million tonnes; as such, inward flows were 2.7 times as high. Higher ratios were recorded in several other leading ports within the EU: Trieste in Italy (where inward flows were 4.1 times as high as outward flows), Gdańsk in Poland and Cartegena in Spain (both 3.4), as well as the French ports of Dunkerque (3.2) and Marseille (2.8).

Figure 2: Top 20 ports for maritime freight handled, 2021 and 2022
(million tonnes)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd) and (mar_go_aa)

Maritime passengers

Map 6 shows information for the top EU ports for maritime passengers embarked and disembarked. Some of the EU’s most frequented maritime passenger routes are concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Italian port of Messina (Sicilia) remained the largest passenger port in the EU, with 9.4 million passengers embarked and disembarked in 2022, followed by Reggio di Calabria in southern Italy (8.8 million passengers) that acts as the main port linking the Italian mainland to Sicilia. The Greek port of Peiraiás that is located close to the capital city of Athens had the 3rd highest number of maritime passengers (8.3 million), while there were 2 other ports close to the Greek capital – Paloukia Salaminas and Perama – that had high passenger numbers. Among the other principal maritime ports for passenger traffic in 2022, the following recorded the highest numbers of passengers in each EU country

Helsinki in Finland (8.0 million passengers)
Palma Mallorca in Spain (7.7 million passengers)
Stockholm in Sweden (7.5 million passengers)
Tallinn in Estonia (6.8 million passengers)
Helsingør (Elsinore) in Denmark (6.3 million passengers)
Mġarr, Gozo in Malta (5.7 million passengers)
Calais in France (5.1 million passengers)
Burgstaaken/Fehmarn in Germany (4.9 million passengers)
Split in Croatia (4.7 million passengers).

Map 6: Maritime passengers embarked and disembarked, 2022
(million)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mp_aa_pphd) and (mar_pa_aa)

In 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of maritime passengers that embarked or disembarked in EU ports stood at 418 million. The impact of the crisis and its associated containment measures led to a rapid contraction in passenger services, in contrast to the situation for maritime freight. The total number of passengers that embarked or disembarked almost halved in 2020 (compared with 2019), falling 45.0% to 230 million. By 2022, the number of maritime passengers in the EU had partially recovered, reaching 349 million, although this remained 16.7% lower than prior to the pandemic.

Figure 3 compares the number of maritime passengers embarked and disembarked in the EU’s principal passenger ports with data for 2019 and 2020. The impact of the pandemic and partial recovery was mixed and reflects, at least to some degree, the balance between national and international services (with the latter taking longer to recover). For example, the number of passengers carried in the Finnish and Estonian capitals of Helsinki and Tallinn remained almost 33.3% lower in 2022 than prior to the pandemic in 2019, and even larger falls were recorded for Calais in France (down 39.3%) and Napoli in Italy (down 41.1%). There were 2 ports that are characterised by local services that recorded slightly higher passenger numbers in 2022 than in 2019 (both up 2.2%) – the Greek ports of Paloukia Salaminas and Perama that are located at either end of a ferry service in close proximity to Athens.

Unlike for the movement of goods, there was generally little difference between the number of passengers embarking and disembarking in EU ports, suggesting that most passengers made return journeys on the same route as their outward departure.

Figure 3: Top 20 ports for maritime passengers embarked and disembarked, 2019 and 2022
(million)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mp_aa_pphd) and (mar_pa_aa)

Source data for figures and maps

Transport at regional level

Data sources

Regional transport statistics

Regional transport statistics are collected for a number of transport modes. These cover a broad range of indicators, for example, transport infrastructure (the length or density of transport networks) or equipment rates (the number of vehicles per inhabitant). The other main area of regional transport statistics concerns flows of passenger and freight traffic between, within and through regions. Differences between regions are often closely related to the level and structure of their economic activity, their number of inhabitants, or their geographical location in relation to key transport infrastructure (such as road and rail networks, or ports and airports).

The legal bases for transport statistics

Road transport statistics: Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road.
The Community database on road accidents (CARE): Council Decision of 30 November 1993 on the creation of a Community database on road accidents (93/704/EC). CARE provides data on road crashes that result in death or injury (there are no statistics available for accidents that only cause damage to a vehicle). The variables to be collected and disseminated were agreed upon by EU countries and the European Commission.
Maritime transport statistics: Directive 2029/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods and passengers by sea.

Furthermore, Eurostat collects – on a voluntary basis – regional statistics on air transport, the infrastructure of road, railways and inland waterways, as well as vehicle stocks and road accidents.

Indicator definitions

Motorisation rate

The number of road motor vehicles registered per 1 000 inhabitants that are licensed to use roads that are open to public traffic. A road motor vehicle is defined as a vehicle fitted with an engine from which it derives its sole means of propulsion, which is normally used for carrying people or goods by road, including passenger cars, motor coaches, buses, trolley buses, motorcycles, road tractors, lorries and special vehicles.

Road freight transport

Road freight motor vehicles include

single vehicles (such as a lorry) designed to carry goods
road tractors, also known as semi-trailer tractors or (the towing part of) articulated lorries, designed to pull vehicles that aren’t power-driven, typically semi-trailers.

Road freight transport statistics relate to transport by heavy goods vehicles; transport by light goods vehicles is excluded. Road freight transport is defined as road transport between 2 places (a place of loading and a place of unloading). The information presented concerns the performance of road freight transport (in tonne-kilometres per inhabitant) for goods unloaded in each NUTS level 2 region. The transport includes that performed by vehicles registered in any of the EU countries, but not by non-EU registered vehicles. The transport includes freight originating anywhere, not just within the region of unloading nor just within the EU.

Road accidents

A fatal road transport accident involves at least 1 road vehicle in motion on a public road (or a private road to which the public have right of access), resulting in at least 1 killed person. Road fatalities include people who are killed immediately in a traffic accident or who die within 30 days as a result of an injury sustained in a road accident; these statistics exclude suicides.

A road crash – alternatively referred to as a road traffic accident – is defined as a crash involving at least 1 vehicle on a public road. Damage-only accidents – where there are no fatalities or injuries – are excluded from the information presented.

Electrified rail line

A railway line is a line of transportation exclusively for the use of railway vehicles. Lines solely used for tourism are excluded, as are railways constructed solely to serve mines, forests or other industrial or agricultural undertakings and which aren’t open to public traffic.

An electrified railway line is a line with 1 or more electrified running tracks; the electricity may be provided by an overhead catenary system or a conductor rail to permit electric traction. Electrified railways use either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC).

Maritime traffic

A port is a place having facilities for merchant ships to moor and to load / unload cargo or embark / disembark passengers to or from vessels, usually directly to a pier.

Sea freight transport is the movement of goods using merchant ships on journeys that are undertaken wholly or partly at sea. Transport is measured in terms of tonnes handled in ports, in other words loaded or unloaded to a merchant ship. The transport of goods to offshore installations, for dumping at sea, or reclaimed from the seabed is included, as is transhipment from 1 ship to another. Bunkers and stores supplied to vessels for their own use are excluded. Movements of goods on inland waterways vessels between seaports and inland waterway ports are also excluded.

The unit of measurement is the gross weight of goods; that is the tonnage of goods carried, including packaging but excluding the tare weight of containers or Ro-Ro (roll-on / roll-off) units.

Regional freight statistics for maritime transport only concern main ports that handle more than a million tonnes of cargo annually.

A maritime passenger is any person who makes a sea journey on a merchant ship. Service staff assigned to merchant ships aren’t regarded as passengers. Non-fare paying crew members travelling but not assigned and infants in arms are also excluded.

Regional passenger statistics for maritime transport only concern main ports that handle more than 200 000 passengers annually.

Context

Transport policy

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport is responsible for developing transport policy within the EU. Its remit is to ensure mobility in a single European transport area, integrating the needs of the population and the economy at large, while minimising adverse environmental effects. It is hoped that the promotion of more efficient and interconnected transport networks in the EU will, among other benefits, lead to advanced mobility, reductions in emissions, improved competitiveness and productivity gains.

Policy initiatives within the transport domain touch on everyday lives. For example, the European Commission has proposed legislation about

the protection of passenger rights for air, rail, bus, coach and maritime passengers
security measures, such as a list of airlines banned from EU skies
road safety measures to reduce road fatalities and serious road accidents
funding to deliver a modern trans-European transport network (TEN-T) with multimodal management systems that facilitate the mobility of goods and passengers across the EU
a range of policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by delivering sustainable transport.

Sustainable and smart mobility

In December 2020, the European Commission adopted a Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future (COM(2020) 789 final). The strategy lays the foundations for how the EU’s transport system can move from a paradigm of incremental change to a more fundamental transformation, helping to achieve the green and digital transformations, while becoming more resilient to future crises. To do so, it sets out a roadmap, identifying 3 aspects of mobility and 10 flagship areas.

Sustainable mobility
- Flagship 1: boosting the uptake of zero-emission vehicles, renewables and low-carbon fuels and related infrastructure
- Flagship 2: creating zero-emission airports and ports
- Flagship 3: making inter-urban and urban mobility more sustainable and healthy
- Flagship 4: greening freight transport
- Flagship 5: pricing carbon and providing better incentives for users
Smart mobility
- Making connected and automated multimodal mobility a reality
- Innovation, data and artificial intelligence for smart mobility
Resilient mobility
- Reinforcing the single market
- Making mobility fair and just for all
- Enhancing transport safety and security

The sustainable and smart mobility strategy is a wide-ranging plan built upon a set of key milestones, it includes, among others, the following targets

there should be at least 30 million zero-emission cars and 80 000 zero-emission lorries in operation by 2030, while nearly all cars, vans, buses as well as heavy-duty vehicles should be zero-emission vehicles by 2050
traffic on high-speed rail should double by 2030 and triple by 2050 (compared with 2015)
rail freight traffic should increase 50% by 2030 and double by 2050 (compared with 2015)
a multimodal trans-European transport network (TEN-T) equipped for sustainable and smart transport with high speed connectivity should be operational by 2030 for a core network and by 2050 for the comprehensive network.

Road safety

The EU has a long-term strategic goal for road safety: Vision Zero (in other words, no deaths and serious injuries on European roads by 2050). The European Parliament adopted a resolution in October 2021 on an EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021–30 – Recommendations on next steps towards ‘Vision Zero’ (2021/2014), which reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to reduce the number of deaths on the EU’s roads to almost zero by 2050. The resolution is designed to underpin a 50% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries by 2030. Indicators will be monitored in relation to vehicle safety, the seat belt wearing rate, speed compliance and post-crash care.