
Transport and infrastructure in Latvia
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Latvia 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, Latvia ranks 8th in the world with 0.99 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 1,860 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 7.37 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 360.80 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 498 km of coastline. In 2020, about 462,000 freight containers were transported.
› Airports in Latvia
Back to overview: Latvia
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 70,244 km. For each of the country's 1.88 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 37.27 meters. This puts Latvia in 10th 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 189 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Latvia is considered relatively safe. This corresponds to 9.7 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

Latvia | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 70,200 km | 37,274.81 km | 1,089.22 m |
Railroads | 1,900 km | 987.00 km | 28.84 m |
Waterways | 300 km | 159.19 km | 4.65 m |
Commercial harbors | 70 | 37.15 | 0.001 |
Airports | 3 | 1.59 | 0.047 |
Europe | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
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)