Between 2011 and 2021, transport activity on the EU’s inland waterways was volatile. Since 2017, the data have shown alternating rises and falls in activity, with the data for 2021 showing an increase of more than 3% (4 billion tonne-kilometres) compared with 2020. A similar trend can be observed for the same period in terms of tonnes, with a rise of 4% (19 million tonnes). This information comes from data on inland waterways freight transport published today by Eurostat. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article. (....)