Transport and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia

Our listing of the primary kinds of transport compares the infrastructure of Saudi Arabia with the average of all countries in Asia. Overall, the main traffic and transport routes are well developed and in comparatively good condition.

In terms of the length of its rail network, Saudi Arabia ranks 71st in the world with 0.15 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 5,410 kilometers long. Passenger traffic reached 134.65 million passenger-kilometers in 2018.

› Airports in Saudi Arabia

Back to overview: Saudi Arabia

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 221,372 km. For each of the country's 35.34 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 6.26 meters. This puts Saudi Arabia in 90th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note the country's population density, which is very low at around 16 inhabitants per km². Like this, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.

With an average of 9476 traffic fatalities per year (2012 - 2019), road traffic in Saudi Arabia is considered quite dangerous. This corresponds to around 4.3 accident fatalities per 29.1 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.2 in the USA and 17.1 worldwide.

In Saudi Arabia, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Saudi Arabia
Roadways	221,400 km	6,263.94 km	102.98 m
Railroads	5,400 km	153.08 km	2.52 m
Waterways	0 km	0.00 km	0.00 m
Commercial harbors	392	11.09	0.000
Airports	26	0.74	0.012

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Asia
Roadways	14,699,500 km	3,162.10 km	459.66 m
Railroads	280,000 km	60.24 km	8.76 m
Waterways	260,300 km	55.99 km	8.14 m
Commercial harbors	46,054	9.91	0.001
Airports	1,012	0.22	0.000

Data sources used

• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)
• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)

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