Bulgaria: Railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2021, Bulgaria's railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km) rose 7.7% on 2020 (from 1,119 to 1,205).

Across the 25 yearly changes before that (1996 to 2020), the average change was −5.1% and a typical year strayed about 9% from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.4 standard deviations above that average, so it was larger than a typical year, though not out of the range seen before.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 16.2% in 1997 and the biggest yearly fall was 26.6% in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2012 to 2021 the straight-line trend is downward, about 73.44 a year. A straight line explains 84% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 914.63 for 2024. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2019 to 2021 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 148.33, against 226.27 for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2021, Bulgaria had the 26th highest value of the 47 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Bulgaria in the 2021 ranking

• Slovak Republic — 23rd of 47: 2,052
• Israel — 24th of 47: 1,956
• Norway — 25th of 47: 1,780
• Ireland — 27th of 47: 870
• Chile — 28th of 47: 738
• Greece — 29th of 47: 653

What this measures

Passengers carried by railway are the number of passengers transported by rail multiplied by kilometers traveled.

Limitations: Data for transport sectors are not always internationally comparable. Unlike for demographic statistics, national income accounts, and international trade data, the collection of infrastructure data has not been "internationalized." The data from UIC is based on voluntary reporting by railway companies, and can show drastic increases or decreases for some of the years due to lack of reporting by some of the companies in that country.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a median.

All 27 values

Railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km) in nearby economies

• Albania — 0.81 (2021)
• Armenia — 55 (2017)
• Austria — 8,433 (2021)
• Azerbaijan — 104 (2021)
• Belarus — 4,486 (2021)
• Belgium — 6,970 (2021)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina — 15 (2020)
• Croatia — 540 (2021)
• Czechia — 6,820 (2021)
• Denmark

More infrastructure data for Bulgaria

• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 7,027 (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 0.63 (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 723,825 (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions — 7.98 million (2024)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 118.07 (2024)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 551,943 (2024)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) — 8.17 (2024)
• Patent applications, nonresidents — 7 (2024)
• Patent applications, residents — 179 (2024)
• Medium and high-tech exports (% manufactured exports)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Bulgaria's railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km)?

1,205 in 2021, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1995?

It is down 74.32% from 4,693 in 1995 (5.09% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 5,886 in 1997 and the lowest 1,119 in 2020.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator IS.RRS.PASG.KM, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Railisa Database (UIC), International Union of Railways (UIC), uri: https://uic-stats.uic.org/select/; OECD Statistics, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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