Central Europe and the Baltics: Railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2021, Central Europe and the Baltics' railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km) rose 11.4% on 2020 (from 784 to 873.5).

Across the 25 yearly changes before that (1996 to 2020), the average change was −5.8% and a typical year strayed about 10.4% from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.7 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 11.4% in 2021 and the biggest yearly fall was 48.5% 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 105.74 a year. A straight line explains 78% 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 661.1 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 285.8, against 448.43 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.

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

• Algeria — 348 (2020)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 11,231 (2021)
• Israel — 1,956 (2021)
• Morocco — 4,464 (2021)
• Pakistan — 24,903 (2018)
• Saudi Arabia — 134.65 (2018)
• Tunisia — 633.33 (2021)

More infrastructure data for Central Europe and the Baltics

• Fixed telephone subscriptions — 15.39 million (2022)
• Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) — 14.73 (2022)
• Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide — 525,652 (2023)
• Air transport, freight (million ton-km) — 496.22 (2023)
• Air transport, passengers carried — 76.25 million (2023)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions — 130.27 million (2022)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) — 124.68 (2022)
• ICT service exports (BoP, current US$) — US$68.76 billion (2025)

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 Central Europe and the Baltics's railways, passengers carried (million passenger-km)?

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

How has it changed since 1995?

It is down 79.21% from 4,202 in 1995 (5.86% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 4,202 in 1995 and the lowest 784 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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