In 2023, the number of vessels handling freight or embarking and disembarking passengers in the main EU ports was estimated to be 2.2 million, an increase of 1.5% from the previous year. Greece had the highest number of port calls with 477 115 vessels, followed by Italy (449 131 vessels) and Denmark (322 230 vessels). At the other end of the scale, Slovenia (1 760 vessels), Cyprus (2 090 vessels) and Bulgaria (2 851 vessels) reported the lowest numbers. Compared with 2013, 12 out of the 22 reporting EU countries registered increases in the number of vessels calling at ports. The largest increases were observed in Malta (+100.8%), Croatia (+40.3%) and Spain (+31.0%). By contrast, the biggest decline was reported in Finland (-26.6%), Latvia (-24.3%) and Bulgaria (-21.2%). (....)