In 2024, EU ports handled 417.8 million maritime passengers, an increase of 24.3 million from 2023 (+6.2%), according to data published by Eurostat. The overall traffic approached 2019 levels (-0.1%).
Ten EU countries with more than 14 million passengers accounted for 94.1% of all seaborne passenger transport. Italian ports registered 93.5 million passengers (22.4% of the EU total), followed by Greece with 81.1 million (19.4%) and Denmark with 41.3 million (9.9%).
Between 2019 and 2024, Greece recorded an increase of 7.1 million passengers (+9.7%), Italy gained 7.0 million (+8.0%) and Malta added 2.0 million (+14.9%). Sweden posted the largest decline (-5.7 million; -18.7%), followed by Finland (-4.8 million; -25.1%) and Germany (-3.1 million; -9.8%).
The ten busiest EU passenger ports handled 21.8% of all seaborne passengers, including seven Mediterranean ports, two Baltic ports and one in the North-East Atlantic.
The three busiest ports were all located in Italy: Messina with 11.4 million passengers, Reggio di Calabria with 11.2 million and Napoli with 11.0 million. Compared with 2019, Napoli recorded the largest increase among the top ports (+1.7 million; +18.5%), while Helsinki posted the largest decrease (-2.3 million; -19.7%).
The release notes that data were compiled from 22 EU countries; Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia are not included due to lack of maritime transport.
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union, operating as a directorate-general of the European Commission. It is responsible for collecting, harmonizing and publishing comparable statistical information from EU member states and cooperating countries. Its mandate covers economic, social, environmental and territorial data, produced under common EU statistical legislation.
