A car and a bus on a busy street.

In 2023, car was the main means of passenger transport throughout the EU, followed at a distance by airplanes; buses, coaches or trolleybuses; trains; and sea vessels. 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%).

Eu people on the move, 2023, top 3 countries with highest shares in total passenger-kilometres for each means of transport. Infographic. See link to the full dataset below.

Source dataset: tran_hv_ms_psmod

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%).

This news item marks European Mobility Week, celebrated each year from 16 to 22 September to raise awareness of sustainable urban mobility. 

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Methodological notes

  • The indicator presents the share of the performance by each means of transport in the total transport performance, measured in passenger-kilometres. Passenger-kilometre represents 1 passenger travelling 1 kilometre.
  • The share of a means of transport is calculated by dividing the passenger-kilometres performed by this means by the total passenger-kilometres performed by all transport means (passenger cars; buses, coaches or trolley buses; airplanes; trains and sea vessels). Changes of the share for one means of transport are impacted by the total passenger-kilometres performed and changes in the other means. Therefore, an increase in the share of one means of transport results in drops in the shares of other means but does not necessarily indicate drops in their actual number of passenger-kilometres performed. More information can be found in the data on passenger-kilometres by mode of transport.
  • Bus, coach or trolleybus transport: Cyprus also had a 12.0% share when rounded to one decimal place, but its more precise share was slightly lower than Estonia’s.

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