Top 20 EU Passenger Transport Countries

1624 3 Ferry Research

April 22, 2022

The 20 largest countries in Europe are based on ferry transport via water. A top 20 in which Italy has been at the top for years (think of Elba, Sardinia and Sicily). Greece is the second country, followed by Denmark.

We also included the UK in the rankings without an actual ranking as it's not part of the EU stats. With this, you are able to compare the UK to other countries.

Top 20 EU passenger transport by water

#	Country	2019	2020	Decline / Growth
1	Italy	45.697.000	29.296.000	-56%
2	Greece	36.518.000	20.038.000	-82%
3	Denmark	31.105.000	19.109.000	-63%
4	Sweden	29.146.000	13.229.000	-120%
5	Germany	20.158.000	10.530.000	-91%
6	Croatia	16.920.000	9.235.000	-83%
7	France	20.649.000	8.334.000	-148%
8	Spain	18.981.000	7.808.000	-143%
Extra	UK	21.200.000	8.100.000	-147%
9	Finland	18.521.000	7.006.000	-164%
10	Estonia	12.332.000	6.307.000	-96%
11	Malta	7.402.000	4.181.000	-77%
12	Norway	6.365.000	1.893.000	-236%
13	Poland	2.279.000	1.662.000	-37%
14	Netherlands	2.010.000	967.000	-108%
15	Ireland	2.645.000	814.000	-225%
16	Portugal	371.000	541.000	31%
17	Latvia	1.032.000	435.000	-137%
18	Lithuania	343.000	308.000	-11%
19	Turkey	1.612.000	307.000	-425%
20	Belgium	307.000	40.000	-668%

* Data from Eurostat & Data from Ec Europe: Country level - passengers (excluding cruise passengers) transported to/from main ports.[1]https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/explore/all/transp?lang=en&subtheme=mar&display=list&sort=category&extractionId=MAR_MP_AM_CFT
** The data from Eurostat seem to be partly incomplete. For instance in The Netherlands the data for travel to and from the Wadden Islands is not included.
*** This is the most actual and up to date information that can be found, when 2021 is available we will publish an update within this article.

Italy at 1st Spot

For years now Italy has had the most ferry passengers in Europe. Also due to the many ferries that leave from Italy to Sicily and Sardinia, Italy has been the largest ferry country in Europe for years. Greece and Denmark are a close call, but after the Covid decline Greece will probably outgrow Denmark very quickly again. This is because the numbers in Denmark are much more stable and normally much lower compared to Greece.

If you further zoom into the data from Italy, here are the top 10 passenger harbours:

#	Harbors	Passengers / year
1	Messina	7.719
2	Reggio di Calabria	7.528
3	Napoli	5.292
4	Capri	2.715
5	Ischia	2.645
6	Piombino	2.593
7	Isola d' Elba	2.384
8	Trapani	1.558
9	Palau	1.162
10	La Maddalena	1.075

Latvia 31% Growth

Latvia is the only country to have handled more passengers in 2020 than in 2019. Could be related to the many new connections that have started in Latvia in recent years.

References[+]References[−]

References
↑1	https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/explore/all/transp?lang=en&subtheme=mar&display=list&sort=category&extractionId=MAR_MP_AM_CFT

FerryGoGo

The editorial team at FerryGoGo writes travel guides and creates route ideas for ferry travel, along with everything else that might be of interest to travelers and tourists.

3 Comments

Goodman May 12, 2022 at 8:51 am

Was expecting Greece to top this list, didn’t know Italy had so many big connections.
- Reply
  FerryGoGo September 13, 2023 at 9:24 am
  
  Sicily is a large part of Italy and has many passengers coming and going by ferry!
Susan Richard October 13, 2023 at 7:56 pm

I found this article quite interesting so i had a look into the numbers you provided and it is interesting that Italy’s dominance in the ferry transport sector is mainly down to its extensive network of ferry routes, particularly to popular tourist destinations like Sicily and Sardinia. Good to know Italy is bringing in a lot of tourists! Good information if you are interested in this stuff!