EU ports recorded 395.3 million passengers in 2023

In 2023, the EU ports recorded 395.3 million passengers, marking a 5.8% increase compared with 2022 (374.0 million). However, the number of passengers was 5.5% lower than the pre-COVID levels of 2019.

This information comes from data on maritime passengers published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on maritime passenger statistics.

Greece and Italy lead in seaborne passenger transport

In 2023, 11 countries, each with more than 10 million passengers, accounted for 97% of all seaborne passenger transport in the EU. Italian ports recorded the highest number of passengers: 85.4 million, or 22% of the EU total. Greek ports followed with 75.0 million passengers (19% of the EU total) and Denmark with 41.2 million passengers (10%).

Source dataset: mar_mp_aa_cph

When comparing 2023 with 2022, the number of seaborne passengers increased in 16 out of the 21 EU countries with available data. The biggest increases were recorded in Italy (+6.5 million passengers), Greece (+4.8 million) and France (+3.2 million).

Messina, Italy - the largest EU passenger port in 2023

The top 10 busiest EU passenger ports recorded over one-fifth (22%) of the EU’s seaborne passenger transport. These included 6 ports in the Mediterranean, 3 in the Baltic and 1 in the North-East Atlantic.

Messina in Italy remained the busiest EU passenger port with 11.3 million passengers, followed by Reggio di Calabria in Italy (11.1 million passengers) and Piraeus in Greece (9.6 million).

Source dataset: mar_mp_aa_pphd

Compared with 2019, only 3 out of the top 10 EU ports recorded increases in the number of passengers: Palma de Mallorca in Spain (+0.4 million), Reggio di Calabria in Italy and Piraeus in Greece (+0.2 million each).