Statistics Explained

Transport statistics at regional level



Data extracted in April 2023.

Planned article update: September 2024.

Highlights

Four EU regions reported more than 300 road fatalities in 2021: Nord-Est and Sud-Muntenia (both Romania), Lombardia (Italy; 2020 data) and Andalucía (Spain). The French outermost region of Guadeloupe had the highest incidence of road fatalities, at 159 deaths per million inhabitants.

Ile-de-France – that includes both Paris/Charles de Gaulle and Paris/Orly – had the highest regional count of air passengers carried (42 million in 2021); its passenger count increased 26.9 % compared with 2020.

Rotterdam in the Netherlands was the busiest maritime freight port in the EU: in 2021, it handled 435 million tonnes of goods.

European Union (EU) transport policy aims to promote environmentally friendly, safe and efficient travel, by means of integrated networks using all modes of transport (land, water and air). 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 spring 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtually all EU Member States implemented containment measures and restrictions on non-essential travel internally and/or internationally. Some partially or completely closed borders. Where international travel continued, it was in some cases accompanied by a requirement to go into quarantine. These travel-related restrictions had an immediate and substantial impact on nearly all modes of passenger transport. As the pandemic continued into 2021, waves of travel restrictions were imposed and lifted. The number of international travellers remained low, as did the number of people making use of public transport as some people avoided travel or used private transport instead.

The infographic above provides information on EU regions with the highest motorisation rates. There were five regions where this rate was higher than 1 000 vehicles per inhabitant in 2021: three of these were located in northern Italy – Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste, Provincia Autonoma di Trento, and Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen – the other two were the Finnish archipelago of Åland and the Greek capital region of Attiki.

This chapter focuses on regional statistics for road transport, rail, air and maritime traffic. The latest available data relate to the 2021 reference period; as such, they cover a period characterised by a partial recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The first section presents information concerning road transport, more specifically for the motorisation rate, road freight transport, as well as the incidence of road fatalities and road crashes. The second section provides statistics on passenger and freight train movements on trans-European rail networks. The third focuses on air traffic: it presents the number of air passengers carried at a regional level. The final section looks at maritime traffic, detailing the busiest ports in the EU in terms of freight handled.

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 passenger/freight indicators). Previous editions of the publication can be found by following this link.

Full article

Road transport and accidents

Roads are by far the most common transport mode in the EU for passenger and inland freight transport. Policy objectives for road transport include, among other issues: ensuring mobility on an ever more congested road network; reducing road fatalities; lowering air pollution (emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants) and the carbon footprint to which road transport contributes; decreasing the reliance on fossil fuel use and promoting the use of electric vehicles; as well as reviewing the working conditions of professional drivers.

Motorisation rate

In 2021, there were 313 million motor vehicles registered in the EU; these vehicles include passenger cars – which accounted for approximately four out of every five motor vehicles – as well as lorries, road tractors, motorcycles, motor coaches, buses, trolley buses and special vehicles. In absolute terms, the highest count of motor vehicles across NUTS level 2 regions of the EU was in the northern Italian region of Lombardia (8.1 million vehicles; 2020 data). The next highest regional figures were observed in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía (6.0 million) and the French capital region of Ile-de-France (5.9 million; excluding motorcycles).

The EU’s motorisation rate — the average number of motor vehicles per inhabitant — stood at 701 per 1 000 inhabitants (see Map 1). Note that the statistics presented for France relate to NUTS level 1 regions and that only national data are available for Portugal. The use of motor vehicles generally and passenger cars in particular is often relatively low in regions characterised by efficient and extensive public transport systems with frequent services. In these regions, people may be less inclined to own a vehicle (or multiple vehicles within one household), especially if the regions where they live/work suffer from congestion and/or difficulties to find a place to park. This pattern was particularly apparent in capital and urban regions of western and Nordic Member States. By contrast, in several eastern and southern EU Member States it was more common to find the highest motorisation rates recorded in capital regions. Motorisation rates were also relatively high in several regions that receive a large number of tourists (likely reflecting their rental fleets).

Berlin – the capital region of Germany – had one of the lowest motorisation rates in the EU, at 400 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants in 2021. Vehicle ownership in Berlin was considerably lower than in any other part of Germany, with the next lowest motorisation rates being recorded in Bremen and Hamburg (506 and 507 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants, respectively). Other capital regions to report relatively low motorisation rates — less than 500 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants — were those of Austria, France (NUTS level 1), Sweden and Hungary; Latvia (a single region at this level of detail) also had a similarly low rate.

Higher motorisation rates are often found in suburban, rural and peripheral regions, possibly reflecting a lack of alternative modes of inland passenger transport. The highest motorisation rates in the EU — at least 900 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants in 2021 — are shown by the darkest shade of blue in Map 1. The 23 regions in this group were principally concentrated in Italy (nine regions), Poland (five regions) and Finland (four regions). It also included two regions from Austria – Burgenland and Niederösterreich – as well as Attiki and Praha, the capital regions of Greece and Czechia, and Flevoland in the Netherlands, which is located within commuting distance of the Dutch capital.

The motorisation rate in Valle d’Aosta/Vallee d’Aoste (Italy) was 6.7 times as high as that recorded in Nord-Est (Romania)

Some of the highest motorisation rates across NUTS level 2 regions were recorded in northern Italy (2020 data): Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste (2 418 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants), Provincia Autonoma di Trento (1 631) and Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen (1 123). Note that these statistics may reflect specific circumstances: for example, the high rate in Valle d’Aosta/Vallee d’Aoste is, at least in part, attributed to lower taxation on new vehicle registrations. There were also relatively high rates reported in the Finnish archipelago of Åland (1 124; 2021 data) and the Greek capital region of Attiki (1 080; 2019 data). This group of five were the only regions within the EU to report an average of more than one motor vehicle per inhabitant.

The lowest motorisation rate was recorded in the Romanian region of Nord-Est (362 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants in 2021). Together with Berlin, it was the only other region in the EU to report no more than 400 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants. There were 20 other regions with motorisation rates that were below 500 motor vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants (as shown by the yellow shade in Map 1); a majority were located in eastern EU Member States, with a particularly high concentration in Romania (six out of eight regions).

Map showing motorisation rate as number of vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants by NUTS 2 regions in the EU and surrounding countries. Each region is classified based on a numbered range of motorisation rate for the year 2021.
Map 1: Motorisation rate, 2021
(number of vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants, by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_r_vehst), (demo_pjan) and (demo_r_d2jan)

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. This became particularly apparent with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, as there was a shortage of supply for some goods, while an increasing proportion of consumers shopped online and received deliveries at home.

In 2021, the total weight of goods transported by road by vehicles registered in the EU was 13.5 billion tonnes, equivalent to 30 tonnes per inhabitant. There was only a relatively modest contraction in the weight of goods transported by road during the COVID-19 crisis compared with the impact of the pandemic on other transport activities. Road freight decreased 3.9 % in 2020 before rebounding with growth of 5.0 % in 2021. This may, at least in part, be explained by the European Commission and EU Member States taking rapid actions to mitigate the impact of the crisis (for example, recognising transport employees as key workers and introducing schemes such as upgrading the transport Green Lanes to keep the economy going during the COVID-19 pandemic resurgence (COM(2020) 685 final)).

Across NUTS level 2 regions, the weight of goods transported by road peaked in 2021 in two Spanish regions: Cataluña and Andalucía (242.3 million and 241.9 million tonnes of goods unloaded, respectively). There were two other regions within the EU where the weight of goods unloaded was higher than 200.0 million tonnes: Lombardia in northern Italy (237.5 million tonnes) and Comunitat Valenciana (also in Spain; 224.8 million tonnes). Regional statistics for road freight transport and in particular, absolute values (such as those just presented), should be interpreted with care as the data may reflect, to some extent, the size of each region (either in terms of its area or population), with larger and less densely populated regions often transporting more freight per inhabitant. 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.

To better compare the transport performance of EU regions, information on road freight transport can be adjusted, dividing the weight of goods unloaded in each region by its number of inhabitants. In 2021, there were 31 NUTS level 2 regions where at least 50.0 tonnes of road freight was unloaded per inhabitant (as shown by the darkest shade of blue in Map 2). A majority of these regions were concentrated in Austria (eight out of nine regions; the only exception being the capital region of Wien), Germany (seven regions) and Sweden (six out of eight regions; one of the exceptions being the capital region of Stockholm). However, the highest ratio was recorded in the north-western Greek region of Dytiki Makedonia, where – for each inhabitant – 96.6 tonnes of goods were unloaded after having been transported by road. The next highest values were recorded in three northern Swedish regions – Övre Norrland (89.9 tonnes per inhabitant), Norra Mellansverige (69.9 tonnes per inhabitant) and Mellersta Norrland (68.6 tonnes per inhabitant) – as well as the eastern Finnish region of Pohjois- ja Itä-Suomi (65.3 tonnes per inhabitant). All of these regions are relatively sparsely populated and have relatively few alternative modes of transport.

By contrast, there were 27 NUTS level 2 regions where less than 15.0 tonnes of road freight was unloaded per inhabitant in 2021. This group of regions was predominantly located in southern EU Member States or in capital regions. The relatively low level of road freight transport in capital regions may reflect, at least in part, their large populations and the high cost of land, with freight ports, logistical and distribution centres more often located on major transport networks/arteries that tend to be in less densely populated regions. The capital regions of Denmark, France, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal, Hungary and Italy were all present among this group of 27 regions with the lowest ratios of road freight transport. At the bottom end of the distribution, there were nine regions that reported less than 10.0 tonnes of road freight unloaded per inhabitant, they included:

  • five central or southern Italian regions (including the capital region of Lazio);
  • the Greek island region of Notio Aigaio (where the bulk of goods are transported by sea);
  • the Romanian region of Nord-Est (that had the lowest motorisation rate in the EU);
  • the atypical Spanish autonomous regions of Ciudad de Melilla and Ciudad de Ceuta.
Map showing road freight transport as tonnes per inhabitant by NUTS 2 region of unloading in the EU and surrounding countries. Each region is classified based on a range of tonnes for the year 2021.
Map 2: Road freight transport, 2021
(tonnes per inhabitant, by NUTS 2 region of unloading)
Source: Eurostat (road_go_ta_ru) and (demo_r_d2jan)

Road accidents

Road safety in the EU has improved in recent decades and EU roads are among the safest in the world. To address the issue of road safety, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in October 2021 on an EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021–2030 – 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. Vision Zero provides a strategic plan and monitoring of key safety performance indicators, for example on vehicle safety, seat belt wearing rates, speed compliance or post-crash care. The strategy has set an initial goal of cutting in half the number of road fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.

Nevertheless, road safety remains a major societal issue. Road fatalities concern persons 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. In 2021, there were 19 917 road fatalities and no fewer than 998 824 injuries on the EU’s roads; this latter figure is an estimate that includes 2020 data for Ireland and Italy.

Pre-pandemic, the trend for EU road accidents was a steady downward development. However, the COVID-19 crisis led to a considerable reduction in road travel with, among other factors, restrictions on personal movement and fewer people driving to work. This contributed to a marked fall in the total number of road fatalities in the EU, down 17.2 % between 2019 and 2020. As many of the restrictions linked to the pandemic were relaxed or removed during 2021, the number of road journeys started to pick-up and the number of road fatalities increased 5.8 %.

Nord-Est in Romania had the highest number of road fatalities (322), while Guadeloupe in France had the highest incidence (159 road fatalities per million inhabitants)

In 2021, there were 45 road fatalities per million inhabitants within the EU. These fatalities were quite evenly distributed insofar as 125 out of 242 NUTS level 2 regions (or 51.7 % of all regions) recorded an incidence of road fatalities that was below the EU average, while 115 had a value that was above; there were two 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. In 2021, there were 24 NUTS level 2 regions with at least 80 road fatalities per million inhabitants (as shown by the darkest shade of blue in the map). This group was concentrated in Romania (six regions), outermost and island regions of France (four regions), Bulgaria and Greece (three regions each), with the remaining regions located across Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Poland and Portugal. At the top end of the distribution, there were 12 NUTS level 2 regions with more than 100 road fatalities per million inhabitants. The peak was recorded in the French outermost region of Guadeloupe (159 road fatalities per million inhabitants), while the next highest incidences were observed in Severozapaden (north-west Bulgaria; 133) and Guyane (also a French outermost region; 120). The remaining nine regions where there were more than 100 road fatalities per million inhabitants were all located in eastern or southern EU Member States.

Urban and capital regions tended to report a much lower incidence of road fatalities. This may be linked to lower average speeds: for example, there may be lower speed limits in built-up areas while motorway networks in and around major conurbations may be frequently congested. It should be noted that 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 other 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.

There were 26 NUTS level 2 regions in the EU where the incidence of road fatalities was less than 25 deaths per million inhabitants in 2021 (as shown by the yellow shade in Map 3). Among these, there were two regions that reported no road deaths: Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste in northern Italy (2020 data) and the relatively small, autonomous region of Ciudad de Ceuta in Spain. However, a majority of this group of 26 were urban areas, including 10 that were capital regions. Leaving aside the two regions for which there were no fatalities, the next lowest incidence rates were recorded in the Belgian capital Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (7 road fatalities per million inhabitants), the Austrian capital region of Wien (8), the Swedish capital region of Stockholm (9) and the northern German region of Bremen (also 9).

Map showing number of road fatalities per million inhabitants by NUTS 2 regions in the EU and surrounding countries. Each region is classified based on a range of inhabitants for the year 2021.
Map 3: Number of road fatalities, 2021
(per million inhabitants, by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_r_acci), (tran_sf_roadse) and (demo_r_d2jan)

The information presented in Map 4 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. This database contains information on road crashes that lead to death or injury; as such, it does not 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.

In 2020, there were 731 600 crashes on the EU’s roads that resulted in a death or injury. When expressed in relation to the size of the population, this equated to 1 696 crashes per million inhabitants. Note that both of these figures exclude Ireland, Malta and Sweden, for which no data are available.

Map 4 shows the incidence of road crashes for NUTS level 3 regions; note that the statistics presented for the Netherlands relate to NUTS level 2 regions and that the statistics presented for Germany relate to NUTS level 1 regions. In 2020, the regional distribution of road crashes was skewed insofar as approximately two thirds of all regions (470 out of the 703 for which data are available) had an incidence that was below the EU average, while there were 233 regions where the incidence was higher. The range was from a peak of 5 342 road crashes per million inhabitants in the north-western Austrian region of Außerfern (an Alpine region with a large amount of transit traffic), down to a low of 61 crashes per million inhabitants in the northern Greek region of Florina. As such, the likelihood of having a road crash that resulted in a fatality or injury in Außerfern was 88 times as high as it was in Florina.

In 2020, there were 71 regions in the EU which recorded at least 2 900 road crashes per million inhabitants (they are shaded in the darkest shade of blue in Map 4). Austrian and German regions had the highest incidence of road crashes:

  • in Austria, 30 out of 35 NUTS level 3 regions had an incidence above this value;
  • in Germany, 14 out of 16 NUTS level 1 regions had an incidence above this value (the only exceptions being Hessen and Thüringen).

The remainder of this group of 71 regions was largely composed of regions located in Italy, Belgium or Portugal, although it also included the Croatian coastal region of Ličko-senjska županija. Looking in more detail, 9 out of the 10 NUTS level 3 regions with the highest incidence of road crashes were concentrated in Austria; the other region at the top of the distribution was the northern Italian region of Genova. These were the only regions in the EU with more than 4 000 road crashes per million inhabitants in 2020. By contrast, the lowest 12 regions with the lowest incidence of road crashes were all located in Greece.

Map showing number of road fatalities per million inhabitants by NUTS 3 regions in the EU and surrounding countries. Each region is classified based on a range of inhabitants for the year 2021.
Map 4: Number of road crashes, 2020
(per million inhabitants, by NUTS 3 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_roadnu) and (demo_r_pjanaggr3)

Rail traffic

The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) creates an EU-wide network of railways, inland waterways, short sea shipping routes, and roads. It links 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. TEN-T policy is based on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013). It is currently being revised/amended, with a new version proposed in July 2022, including amendments to take account of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine (with four transport corridors extended to Ukraine and Moldova).

The trans-European transport network consists of two layers:

  • the core network includes the most important connections, that meet the highest infrastructure quality standards, linking major cities and transport nodes – the EU aims to complete this part of the network by 2030;
  • the comprehensive network connects all EU regions to the core network, with plans to complete this part of the network by 2050;
  • TEN-T policy also foresees core network corridors being merged with the rail freight corridors to become European transport corridors.

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 a number of challenges for international services that are linked to different national standards being employed for electrification, signalling, driver certification or the gauge of track. For example, the Baltic Member States, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Finland use a broader gauge than in most EU Member States. 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 Member States that have considerable distances between major cities have developed high-speed rail infrastructure (for example, Germany, Spain, France or Italy). Some of the Member States that are more densely-populated, such as Belgium or the Netherlands, have a higher frequency of (generally less rapid) trains. Several eastern Member States have relatively extensive rail networks, reflecting a legacy from the communist or Soviet era when there was often a greater reliance on rail (compared with road) for transporting passengers and/or goods.

In 2021, there were 202 600 km of railway lines across the EU; note there are no railways in Cyprus and Malta (this is also the case in Iceland). The core trans-European rail network consisted of 64 600 km of railway lines, while the comprehensive network measured 119 100 km.

Map 5 presents passenger train movements on the trans-European rail network; each segment of the network is identified in the data record, with traffic movements quantified in both directions. In 2020 – a year that was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis (the total number of passenger-kilometres on the EU’s rail network fell 46.0 % between 2019 and 2020) – the highest numbers of passenger train movements were generally recorded in some of the most densely populated areas of the EU, as well as along transport arteries that link major cities (both nationally and internationally). There were more than 400 000 passenger train movements on rail network segments in the Czech and French capitals (the latter principally on rail segments to/from Paris-Nord). Very high counts of passenger train movements were also recorded in/around the Dutch, Austrian, Finnish and Swedish capitals.

Map showing passenger train movements on the trans-European rail network in the EU and surrounding countries as number of passenger trains. Train network lines of varying thickness represent a range of numbered passenger trains for the year 2020.
Map 5: Passenger train movements on the trans-European rail network, 2020
(number of passenger trains)
Source: Eurostat (transport statistics)

Map 6 presents a similar set of information (to that shown in Map 5) but for freight train movements. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rail freight was less marked than for passenger services, as the total weight of goods transported by rail in the EU fell 8.3 % between 2019 and 2020 (note this figure excludes Belgium and Greece for which no data are available). In 2020, the highest numbers of freight train movements on the trans-European rail network were principally recorded on rail segments that formed part of the principal freight corridors (for example, the Rhine-Alpine corridor, the North Sea-Baltic corridor, or the Baltic-Adriatic corridor). The highest number of freight train movements was recorded in Maschen (Germany), located to the south of Hamburg; it is the site of the EU’s largest rail freight facility. Particularly high numbers of freight train movements were also observed for several rail segments in the German region of Nordrhein-Westfalen (for example, in/around Oberhausen, Duisburg and Köln), as well as in/around the Polish capital.

Map showing freight train movements on the trans-European rail network in the EU and surrounding countries as number of freight trains. Train network lines of varying thickness represent a range of numbered freight trains for the year 2020.
Map 6: Freight train movements on the trans-European rail network, 2020
(number of freight trains)
Source: Eurostat (transport statistics)

Air traffic

Air passenger services were particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis; the initial impact of the crisis can be seen in the latest information available. In 2019, there had been 1.0 billion air passengers carried (arrivals plus departures) in the EU; this figure slumped in 2020, falling by almost three quarters (down 73.3 %) to 277 million passengers. There was a partial recovery in 2021, as the number of passengers grew 35.1 % to 374 million, with higher growth for domestic and short-haul travel, while the number of inter-continental air travellers remained depressed.

In recent decades, liberalisation measures have led to the (rapid) growth of low-cost airlines and an expansion of smaller regional airports which are generally less congested and charge lower landing fees than main international airports. Map 7 provides information for the number of air passengers carried in each NUTS level 2 region; note that these regional statistics (unlike the data for the total number of air passengers presented above) generally cover only airports with more than 150 000 passenger units each year. Note also that several regions, at this level of detail, may have more than one main airport, while others do not have any. Based on this subpopulation, the number of air passengers carried in the EU rose by 41.4 % between 2020 and 2021 (somewhat higher than the rate for all air travellers (35.1 %)).

In 2021, there were 16 NUTS level 2 regions (out of 170) with at least 10.0 million air passengers carried. They were principally located in capital regions and other major economic centres across some of the EU’s largest Member States, as well as popular holiday destinations. The highest count was recorded in the French capital region of Ile-de-France – which is home to Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports – with 41.9 million air passengers. The Dutch capital region of Noord-Holland – which is home to Amsterdam/Schiphol airport – had the second highest number of air passengers, at 25.5 million, followed by the German region of Darmstadt – which is home to Frankfurt/Main airport – with 24.8 million passengers. Within this group of 16 regions, there were five regions located in Spain: the capital region of Comunidad de Madrid; three regions that are major tourist destinations – Illes Balears, Canarias and Andalucía; and Cataluña (which has a high number of tourists, but is also an economic hub). Italy (three regions), Germany and France (both two regions) were the only other EU Member States that reported more than one region with at least 10.0 million air passengers in 2021.

As noted above, the number of air passengers carried to/from EU airports with generally more than 150 000 passenger units increased by 41.4 % in 2021. The regional distribution was relatively normal, insofar as there were 84 NUTS level 2 regions out of 170 for which data are available (or 49.4 %) where the number of air passengers grew at a faster rate than the EU average. Some of the fastest increases in passenger numbers were reported for several regions characterised by relatively small regional airports. For example, in Moravskoslezsko in Czechia and Saarland in Germany the number of air passengers more than trebled; it also more than trebled in the German region of Brandenburg, which is – since 2020 – home to Berlin’s main airport. Restricting the analysis to those regions with at least 1.0 million air passengers carried, as well as in Brandenburg the number of passengers more than doubled between 2020 and 2021 in the popular tourist destinations of Ionia Nisia, Kriti and Notio Aigaio (all in Greece), Cyprus, Illes Balears (Spain) and Jadranska Hrvatska (Croatia).

Bubble map showing air passengers carried by NUTS 2 regions in the EU and surrounding countries. Each region has a bubble which is classified based the on a range of percentage change in the number of air passengers carried in the year 2021 compared with 2020 and sized by millions of passengers carried.
Map 7: Air passengers carried, 2021
(by NUTS 2 regions)
Source: Eurostat (tran_r_avpa_nm)

Maritime traffic

Maritime freight services facilitate trade within the EU and also 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; indeed, the vast majority (in tonnage) of the EU’s international freight is transported by sea.

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. After six consecutive years when the total quantity of maritime freight handled (inwards and outwards) in EU ports had risen to a relative peak of 3.59 billion tonnes in 2019, the onset of the COVID-19 crisis led to a decline in activity. The downturn experienced was relatively modest in comparison with the impact of the crisis on maritime passenger services. In 2020, the quantity of maritime freight handled fell 7.3 %, before a partial rebound the following year, rising 4.1 % to 3.46 billion tonnes.

Map 8 shows information for the top 20 EU ports for maritime freight in 2021 (as well as data for 2020 to highlight the impact of the COVID-19 crisis). The map also shows – as coloured circles – those EU ports with at least 2.0 million tonnes of freight handled in 2021.

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.

Rotterdam in the Netherlands was, by far, the largest port in the EU. With 434.8 million tonnes of maritime freight loaded and unloaded in 2021, it accounted for more than one tenth (12.6 %) of the total goods handled in EU ports. The position of Rotterdam as the EU’s leading freight port is clearly evident, as it loaded/unloaded almost twice as much freight as any of the other port in the EU. The next largest freight ports were all located within relatively close proximity of Rotterdam: the Belgian port of Antwerpen (215.9 million tonnes of maritime freight), the German port of Hamburg (111.2 million tonnes), and another Dutch port, in the capital city of Amsterdam (88.0 million tonnes). Away from the North Sea, the next largest ports in the EU were located in the Mediterranean Sea: the Spanish ports of Algeciras (83.1 million tonnes) and Valencia (69.1 million tonnes) as well as the French port of Marseille (70.1 million tonnes).

Although the overall level of freight handled in EU ports increased 4.1 % in 2021, some of the top 20 EU ports experienced a decrease in their quantity of freight handled. The largest fall – down 10.4 % – was recorded in the Greek port of Peiraias, while there were also notable reductions in Algeciras (down 6.2 %) and the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda (down 5.2 %). By contrast, the fastest growth rate – again among the top 20 EU ports in 2021 – was recorded in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, where the quantity of freight handled rose 26.5 % in 2021, closely followed by the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta (up 26.4 %). There were six other ports that recorded double-digit increases: Le Havre and Dunkerque (both in France), Gdansk (Poland), Zeeland Seaports (the Netherlands), Sines (Portugal) and Barcelona (Spain).

Map with stacked bar charts and dots showing maritime freight handled in the EU and surrounding areas. The stacked bar charts at large ports represent inwards and outwards million tonnes freight handled in the years 2020 and 2021. The smaller ports have dots classified based on a range million tonnes of freight handled in the year 2021.
Map 8: Maritime freight handled, 2020 and 2021
(million tonnes of goods)
Source: Eurostat (mar_mg_aa_pwhd) and (mar_go_aa)

Source data for figures and maps

Excel.jpg Transport at regional level

Data sources

Regional transport statistics

Regional transport statistics are collected for a number of transport modes, covering 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 are the following.

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 persons or goods by road, including: passenger cars; motor coaches, buses and 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 are not 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 two places (a place of loading and a place of unloading). The information presented concerns the performance of road freight transport (in tonnes per inhabitant) for goods unloaded in each NUTS level 2 region. The transport includes that performed by vehicles registered in any of the EU Member States, but not by non-EU registered vehicles. The transport includes freight originating anywhere, not just within the region of unloading.

Road accidents

A fatal road transport accident is one involving at least one road vehicle in motion on a public road (or a private road to which the public have right of access), resulting in at least one killed person. Road fatalities include persons 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 traffic accident) is defined as a crash involving at least one vehicle on a public road. Damage-only accidents (where there are no fatalities or injuries) are excluded from the information presented.

Rail traffic

A passenger train is one that carries people rather than goods. It involves the movement of passengers using railway vehicles between the place of embarkation and the place of disembarkation. The transport of passengers by metro, tram and/or light rail is excluded.

A freight train involves the movement of goods using railway vehicles between the place of loading and the place of unloading.

A railway is a line of communication made up by rail exclusively for the use of railway vehicles. Trans-European network (TEN-T) railway lines comprise high-speed rail lines and conventional rail lines as defined in Decision No 1692/96/EC. Each network segment which forms part of the trans-European network is identified by means of an additional attribute in the data record, in order to enable traffic to be quantified. Within the statistics presented, train movements are counted in both directions along each line to obtain the count of passenger and freight trains.

Air traffic

An airport is defined as an area of land or water (including any buildings, installations and equipment) intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure and surface movement of aircraft and open for commercial air transport operations. Note that small airports are excluded from regional datasets, which only cover airports with more than 150 000 passengers per year.

Air passengers carried are all passengers on national and international flights. These statistics cover all passengers on a particular flight, counted once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight. Air passengers include all revenue and non-revenue passengers whose journeys begin or terminate at the reporting airport, as well as transfer passengers joining or leaving a flight at the reporting airport; direct transit passengers (on the same aircraft with the same flight number) are excluded from the statistics for the airports through which they transit.

Maritime traffic

A port is a place having facilities for merchant ships to moor and to load or unload cargo or to embark or 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 one 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 units.

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, carbon reductions, improved competitiveness and productivity gains.

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

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 one of fundamental transformation, helping to achieve green and digital transformations, while becoming more resilient to future crises. To do so, it sets out a roadmap, identifying three aspects of mobility and 10 flagship areas.

  • 1. 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
  • 2. Smart mobility
    • Making connected and automated multimodal mobility a reality
    • Innovation, data and artificial intelligence for smart mobility
  • 3. 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.

Transport infrastructure and trans-European networks

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the EU funding instrument for strategic investment in transport, energy and digital infrastructure. In the transport sector, the CEF is dedicated to the implementation of trans-European networks (TEN-T) and aims at supporting investments in cross-border connections and missing links. As part of the European fund for strategic investments, €12.8 billion have been budgeted in the multiannual financial framework for 2021–2027 for the transport part of the CEF. The programme provides financial support, primarily in the form of grants, to develop high-performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks.

TEN-T is designed to create a modern and effective infrastructure for linking Europe’s regions and national networks, promoting the seamless operation of the EU’s single market. It covers projects of common interest to create new or to upgrade existing infrastructure, to close gaps, to remove bottlenecks and to eliminate technical barriers to transport flows between EU Member States. Directive (EU) 2021/1187 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2021 on streamlining measures for advancing the realisation of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) clarifies and harmonises permit-granting procedures for cross-border projects.

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 2021–2030 – 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.

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Regional transport statistics (t_tran_r)
Regional transport statistics (t_reg_tran)


Multimodal data (tran)
Regional transport statistics (tran_r)
Stock of vehicles by category and NUTS 2 regions (tran_r_vehst)
Victims in road accidents by NUTS 2 regions (tran_r_acci)
Railway transport (rail)
Railway transport measurement – passengers (rail_pa)
Railway transport measurement – goods (rail_go)
Railway traffic (rail_tf)
Train movements (rail_tf_trainmv)
Road transport (road)
Road freight transport measurement (road_go)
Maritime transport (mar)
Maritime transport – main annual results (mar_m)
Air transport (avia)
Air transport measurement – passengers (avia_pa)
Regional transport statistics (reg_tran)
Road freight (reg_road)
Other regional transport (reg_otran)
Railway transport - national and international railway goods transport by loading/unloading NUTS 2 region (tran_r_rago)
Railway transport – national and international railway passengers transport by loading/unloading NUTS 2 region (tran_r_rapa)

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This article forms part of Eurostat’s annual flagship publication, the Eurostat regional yearbook.