a freight ship carrying goods

In 2022, road freight transport represented 24.9% of all freight transport performance (in tonne-kilometres) in the EU as it went up by 0.4 percentage points (pp) when compared to 2021. 

Maritime transport still accounted for the largest share of freight transport at 67.8%, but went down from 68.2% in 2021. Rail transport saw a slight increase from 5.4% in 2021 to 5.5% in 2022, while inland waterway slightly decreased from 1.8% in 2021 to 1.6% in 2022. Air transport (0.2%) remained the same in 2022 when compared with the previous year.

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.  

Compared with 2012, the only increase in share by transport mode was road transport, which went up by 2.9 pp with a gradual increase over this period. Meanwhile, decreases were noted in maritime transport (-2.1 pp), inland waterway (-0.6 pp), and rail transport (-0.2 pp). The air transport share remained the same.  
 

Modal split of freight transport, EU. Pie charts. For more information click dataset below.

Source dataset: tran_hv_ms_frmod
 

Maritime is the main transport mode in 15 EU countries

Out of 22 EU members with a coastline, in 2022, maritime was the main mode of freight transport for 15 of them and accounted for more than 70% of freight transport in 10 countries. The countries with more than 95% share of maritime transport were Portugal (98.1%), Cyprus (97.2%), and Greece (96.4%). 

At the same time, the highest shares of road transport were registered in Luxembourg (85.0%), Czechia (77.3%), and Hungary and Poland (both 69.0%).

For more information

 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. More information can be found in the data on tonne-kilometres by mode of transport.
  • Data might not add up to 100% due to rounding.
  • EU aggregates for 2012-2022 are estimated due to the following facts: 
    • Belgium: 2012-2022 data on rail transport are estimated. 
    • Finland: 2017-2018 data on inland waterway transport are estimated. 
  • When it comes to data for EU countries, the following notes apply: 
    • Malta: data on modal split are not available; however, maritime and air transport data are included in the EU aggregates. Data on road freight transport are not available as Malta is exempted from reporting road freight statistics. Malta has no rail and inland waterway transport. 
    • Cyprus: data on road international transport are not available; however, they are negligible. Cyprus has no rail and inland waterway transport.
    • Sweden: 2012-2015 data on inland waterway transport are not available.
    • Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, and Slovenia: no inland waterway freight transport. 
    • Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia: no maritime transport. 

 

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