The 20 largest countries in Europe 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.
Top 20 EU passenger transport by water
* 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 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 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:
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
Use our ferry guides and maps
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Was expecting Greece to top this list, didn’t know Italy had so many big connections.
Sicily is a large part of Italy and has many passengers coming and going by ferry!
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!