In 2025, 457 billion passenger-kilometres (pkm) were performed by rail in the EU, up from 445 billion in 2024 (+2.6%). This is the highest number reported by main rail undertakings since the start of the data collection in 2004.
Germany registered the highest number of passengers carried at 2 954 million, ahead of France (1 312 million) and Italy (844 million). At the other end of the scale were Lithuania with 5 million, Estonia (8 million) and Greece (14 million).
This information comes from data on railway passenger transport published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained articles on railway passenger transport statistics - quarterly and annual data.
Relative to the population of each EU country, Luxembourg had the highest ratio of passengers per inhabitant at 46.1, followed by Hungary (35.9) and Denmark (35.6). The lowest rate was found in Greece (1.4) and Lithuania (1.9), followed by Bulgaria and Romania (both 3.3).
Hungary had the highest rate of passenger-kilometres per inhabitant at 1692, followed by France (1606) and Austria (1588), while Greece (69), Lithuania (164) and Bulgaria (226) had the lowest.
