Transport and infrastructure in Estonia

Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Estonia with the average of all countries in Europe. Overall, the main traffic and transport routes are well developed and in comparatively good condition.

In terms of the length of its rail network, Estonia ranks 3rd in the world with 1.61 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 2,146 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 2.13 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 290.00 million passenger-kilometers in 2021.

The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the 3,794 km of coastline. In 2020, about 213,928 freight containers were transported.

› Airports in Estonia

Back to overview: Estonia

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 58,412 km. For each of the country's 1.33 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 43.89 meters. This puts Estonia in 8th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 29 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 75 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Estonia is considered relatively safe. This corresponds to 5.7 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

In Estonia, 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. This rule was introduced at the end of the 18th century during the Napoleonic Wars. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Estonia
Roadways	58,400 km	43,888.04 km	1,288.31 m
Railroads	2,100 km	1,612.40 km	47.33 m
Waterways	335 km	251.70 km	7.39 m
Commercial harbors	68	51.09	0.001
Airports	5	3.76	0.110

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Europe
Roadways	6,708,900 km	11,154.38 km	1,111.71 m
Railroads	258,600 km	429.97 km	42.85 m
Waterways	54,800 km	91.17 km	9.09 m
Commercial harbors	15,273	25.39	0.003
Airports	573	0.95	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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