Hungary recorded the highest volume of rail passenger-kilometres per inhabitant in 2025, at 1,692, according to new data from Eurostat.
Other countries with high levels of passenger-kilometres per inhabitant included France (1,606) and Austria (1,588). Greece (69), Lithuania (164) and Bulgaria (226) recorded the lowest figures, the data showed.
Rail transport
Rail passenger transport in the European Union increased by 2.6% last year, reaching a record 457 billion passenger-kilometres, Eurostat’s data showed.
This was up from 445 billion passenger-kilometres in 2024 and represents the highest annual volume since data was first collected on this topic in 2004.
‘In 2025, rail passengers across the EU travelled a combined 2.6% more kilometres than in 2024, reaching the highest annual total recorded between 2015 and 2025,’ Eurostat noted.
In terms of the absolute number of rail passengers carried, Germany led the way with 2.954 billion. France followed with 1.312 billion passengers, while Italy recorded 844 million.
At the other end of the scale, Lithuania reported just five million passengers, Estonia eight million and Greece 14 million.
Year-on-year increase
In 2025, rail passenger transport performance increased in most EU countries compared with the previous year, the data showed.
Portugal recorded by far the strongest growth (+25.7%), followed by Ireland (+13.1%), and Poland (+8.6%). By contrast, the largest decreases were recorded in Estonia (-10.9%), and Romania (-10.4%).
Elsewhere, when measured against population, Luxembourg had the highest number of rail passengers per inhabitant, at 46.1. Hungary followed with 35.9, ahead of Denmark at 35.6. The lowest rate was found in Greece (1.4) and Lithuania (1.9), followed by Bulgaria and Romania (both 3.3).
The figures cover main rail undertakings, which Eurostat defines as operators with a total passenger transport volume of at least 100 million passenger-kilometres. Read more here.
