Transport and infrastructure in Italy
Our listing of the primary kinds of transport compares the infrastructure of Italy 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, Italy ranks 54th in the world with 0.28 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 16,779 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 21.31 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 55.49 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 total 7,600 km of coastline. In 2020, about 9.80 million freight containers were transported.
› Airports in Italy
Back to overview: Italy
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 487,700 km. For each of the country's 59.55 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 8.19 meters. This puts Italy in 65th place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 198 inhabitants per km² must also be taken into account. Countries with fewer inhabitants on the same or even larger area naturally achieve quite different values here and have to connect remote areas to the transport network despite a smaller population.With an average of 3471 traffic fatalities per year (2012 - 2019), road traffic in Italy is considered relatively safe. This corresponds to around 4.3 accident fatalities per 5.8 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 5.9 in the European Union as a whole and 17.1 worldwide.
In Italy, 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.
Italy | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 487,700 km | 8,189.20 km | 1,618.44 m |
| Railroads | 16,800 km | 281.74 km | 55.68 m |
| Waterways | 2,400 km | 40.30 km | 7.96 m |
| Commercial harbors | 1,296 | 21.76 | 0.004 |
| Airports | 129 | 2.17 | 0.428 |
Europe | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 6,708,300 km | 11,136.37 km | 1,111.61 m |
| Railroads | 258,600 km | 429.31 km | 42.85 m |
| Waterways | 53,100 km | 88.21 km | 8.81 m |
| Commercial harbors | 15,291 | 25.38 | 0.003 |
| Airports | 3,737 | 6.20 | 0.001 |
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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