EU people on the move: changes in a decade

The car continues to be the dominant means of transport in all EU countries compared with journeys by train, bus and coach, plane or boat. In 2021, transport by car accounted for 79.7% of passenger-kilometres across the EU, compared with 7.3% for planes, 7.1% for coaches, buses or trolley buses, 5.6% for trains and 0.3% for sea boats.

In a decade, much changed in the share of transport means used. The share of passengerkilometres by passenger car in the total transport performance by all modes was 73.1% in 2011 and recorded small deviations around this figure until 2019. In 2020, there was an increase in the share of cars in the total transport performance to 81.9% but this does not represent an actual increase in the number of passenger-kilometres by car (in 2020, there was a decrease to 3,541 billion passenger-kilometres, from 4,278 billion passenger-kilometres in 2019), it mainly reflects the strong decrease in transport by air due to the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on transportation.

In 2021, compared with 2011, the use of public means of transportation, such as trains, coaches, buses and trolley buses, registered a decrease: -1.9 percentage points (pp) in the share of coaches, buses and trolley buses (from 9% to 7.1%) and -1.0 pp in the share of trains (from 6.6% to 5.6%).

When looking at the share of air passenger-kilometres, it was 10.9% in 2011 and had constantly increased to 15% in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. The pandemic significantly impacted the sector, bringing its share down to the lowest point in the decade: 5.7% in 2020. The value registered in 2021 of 7.3% reflects the recovery of the air transport sector.

Use of different transport means across the EU

Among the EU countries, in 2021, transport by car had the highest share in the total transport performance in Lithuania (91.7%), followed by the Netherlands (85.4%) and Finland (85.2%).

In terms of air transport, Croatia registered the highest share (25.4%) of air passenger-kilometres in the total performance by all transport modes, followed by Bulgaria (16.3%) and Spain (13.1%).

For coaches, buses and trolley buses, Malta had the highest share (13.3%), with Hungary (12.8%) and Ireland (12.4%) coming next on the 2021 top list.