Cars were the main means of passenger transport throughout the EU in 2023, according to Eurostat, followed at a distance by airplanes; buses, coaches or trolleybuses; trains; and sea vessels.
According to data from the EU’s statistics agency, cars accounted for 70.6% of total passenger-kilometres across the EU, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points (pp) compared with 2022.
Transport by airplane made up 14.7% of total passenger-kilometres, an increase of 1.6 pp compared with 2022. Buses, coaches or trolleybuses followed with 7.2% (down 0.2 pp), trains accounted for 7.1% (up 0.3 pp), and sea vessels for 0.4% (stable compared with 2022).
The highest shares of car transport were registered in Lithuania (85.7% of total passenger-kilometres), the Netherlands (77.1%) and Finland (76.4%).
Croatia registered the highest share of air passenger-kilometres in the total transport performance (43.5%), followed by Bulgaria (29.0%) and Cyprus (27.4%).
Malta recorded the highest share of transport by buses, coaches or trolleybuses (15.8% of total passenger-kilometres), followed closely by Ireland (15.4%) and Estonia (12.0%).
Rail transport played an important role in the Netherlands (10.9% of total passenger-kilometres), Austria (10.5%) and France (9.1%).
Croatia registered the largest share of passenger-kilometres for sea transport (2.4%), closely followed by Estonia (2.3%) and Finland (2.1%).
