Greece had the highest number of port calls with 477,115 vessels, followed by Italy (449,131 vessels) and Denmark (322,230 vessels). At the other end of the scale, Slovenia (1,760 vessels), Cyprus (2,090 vessels) and Bulgaria (2,851 vessels) reported the lowest numbers.

Compared with 2013, 12 out of the 22 reporting EU countries registered increases in the number of vessels calling at ports. The largest increases were observed in Malta (+100.8 percent), Croatia (+40.3 percent) and Spain (+31 percent). By contrast, the biggest decline was reported in Finland (-26.6 percent), Latvia (-24.3 percent) and Bulgaria (-21.2 percent). 

In 2023, the average gross vessel size calling at the main EU ports was 8,058 tonnes, up 5.2 percent compared with 2022 (7,662 T). Compared with 2013, the average size increased by 18.1 percent.

Belgium registered the largest average size of vessels at main ports in 2023 (32,446 T), followed by Slovenia (29,578 T) and France (29 173 T), while the lowest average gross tonnage was in Croatia (1,533 T), Greece (3,264 T) and Denmark (3,573 T).

Compared with 2022, Italy registered the biggest increase in average vessel size calling at ports (+25.6 percent) ahead of Bulgaria (+15.4 percent) and Romania (14.6 percent), whereas Malta (-6.1 percent), Denmark (-3.8 percent) and Latvia (-1.6 percent) saw the biggest fall. Overall, 19 EU countries recorded increases in the average size of vessels compared with 2022, while this number reaches 20 countries when comparing with 2013.