In 2025, freight transport on EU inland waterways reached 118.0 billion tonne-kilometres (tkm), indicating a 3.0% decrease (-3.7 billion tkm) compared with 2024.
Between 2015‑2017, freight transport on the EU’s inland waterways remained steady at about 145‑146 billion tkm. It dropped sharply in 2018, partly recovered in 2019 and 2021, but stayed below the earlier peak. From 2022 the decline accelerated, hitting a low of 116.4 billion tkm in 2023, before a modest rise to 121.6 billion tkm in 2024.
Germany and the Netherlands were the main contributors to EU inland waterway transport in 2025, with 42.7 billion tkm and 42.2 billion tkm, respectively. Together, transport on inland waterways in these 2 countries accounted for 71.9% of the EU total.
This information comes from data on inland waterway freight transport published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on inland waterway freight transport.
International transport accounted for more than half of total transport
At EU level, international transport accounted for more than half of the total transport in 2025 (54.7%), national transport represented 24.9% and transit transport 20.4%. (....)