Most goods transported by sea within the EU in 2023

In 2023, roughly two-thirds (67.4%) of all freight transported within the EU territory was by sea when considering the amount of goods and the travel distance (tonne-kilometres). Road freight transport accounted for 25.3% of all freight, while rail transport represented 5.5%. Inland waterways accounted for 1.6% of freight transport and the share of air transport was 0.2%.

Compared with 2013, road transport was the only mode with an increasing share, rising by 2.8 percentage points (pp) over the 10 year period. At the same time, the share of maritime transport decreased by 2.0 pp, inland waterways by 0.6 pp and rail transport by 0.2 pp. 

This information comes from data on the modal split of freight transport published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on freight transport – modal split.

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Source dataset: tran_hv_ms_frmod

For 15 out of the 22 EU countries with a coastline, maritime was the main mode of freight transport and in 10 countries it accounted for more than 70% of freight transport. More than 95% of freight was transported by sea in Portugal (98.2%), Cyprus (96.5%) and Greece (96.4%). 

Meanwhile, more than 70% of all freight was transported on roads in Luxembourg (84.5%), Czechia (77.7%) and Hungary (70.7%).

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Source dataset: tran_hv_ms_frmod

High shares of rail freight transport were recorded in Lithuania (31.7%), Slovakia (30.1%), Austria (29.1%) and Slovenia (27.1%). 

Romania recorded the highest share of goods transported along its inland waterways (18.9%), followed by the Netherlands (11.7%) and Bulgaria (8.7%).

Air transport made up at least 1% of all freight transport in only 7 countries, with Romania (1.6%), Luxembourg (1.5%), Hungary and Lithuania (1.3% each) recording the highest shares.

For more information

• Statistics Explained article on freight transport statistics - modal split
• Thematic section on transport
• Database on transport 
• Key figures on European transport – 2024 edition 
• Webinar on transport statistics

Methodological notes

• The share of each mode of transport is calculated based on the tonne-kilometres performed by all five modes of transport (road, rail, inland waterways, maritime and air). Therefore, an increase in the share of one mode reflects drops in the shares of other modes, but not necessarily drops in transport performance (tonne-kilometres) for other modes. 
• Transport performance (in tonne-kilometres) follows the ‘territoriality principle’. This means that only freight transport performed within the territory of a country is considered, regardless of the nationality of the vehicle or vessel. In terms of air transport, 'territorialisation' means that the transport performed in the air space is allocated to the countries overflown on each air transport route. In terms of maritime transport, tonne-kilometres are calculated according to the distance passed in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of each country.
• EU aggregates for 2023 are estimated.
• When it comes to data for EU countries, the following notes apply:
  • Malta: no data available.
  • Belgium and Switzerland: Eurostat estimates.
  • Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Switzerland: no maritime transport.
  • Cyprus: no rail transport.
  • Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Norway: insignificant or no inland waterway freight transport.
  • Portugal, Spain and Norway: insignificant share of air in total freight transport. 

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