Transport and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia

Our listing of the primary types 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 72nd 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 35.95 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 6.16 meters. This puts Saudi Arabia in 89th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 17 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.

With an average of 9939 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Saudi Arabia is considered quite dangerous. This corresponds to 29.4 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 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	6,157.71 km	102.98 m
Railroads	5,400 km	150.49 km	2.52 m
Waterways	0 km	0.00 km	0.00 m
Commercial harbors	392	10.90	0.000
Airports	26	0.72	0.012

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Asia
Roadways	16,613,000 km	3,524.24 km	519.50 m
Railroads	280,000 km	59.41 km	8.76 m
Waterways	260,300 km	55.21 km	8.14 m
Commercial harbors	45,998	9.76	0.001
Airports	1,012	0.21	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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