Transport and infrastructure in Finland

Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Finland with the average of all countries in Europe. Overall, the traffic routes are above average and in good condition.

In terms of the length of its rail network, Finland ranks 5th in the world with 1.07 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 5,923 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 10.27 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 4.53 billion passenger-kilometers in 2018.

The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the 1,250 km of coastline. In 2020, about 1.53 million freight containers were transported.

› Airports in Finland

Back to overview: Finland

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 454,000 km. For each of the country's 5.54 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 81.93 meters. This puts Finland in 3rd place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 16 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 251 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Finland is considered very safe. This corresponds to 4.6 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

In Finland, 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 regulation was enforced on June 8th, 1858. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Finland
Roadways	454,000 km	81,934.42 km	1,341.41 m
Railroads	5,900 km	1,068.94 km	17.50 m
Waterways	8,000 km	1,443.78 km	23.64 m
Commercial harbors	272	49.09	0.001
Airports	20	3.61	0.059

	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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