Transport and infrastructure in North Macedonia

Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of North Macedonia with the average of all countries in Europe. The main traffic and transport routes are in good condition, but do not reach the level of the leading industrial nations.

In terms of the length of its rail network, North Macedonia ranks 49th in the world with 0.33 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 683 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 375.36 million tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 25.35 million passenger-kilometers in 2021.

› Airports in North Macedonia

Back to overview: North Macedonia

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 14,182 km. For each of the country's 2.07 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 6.87 meters. This puts North Macedonia in 80th place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 80 inhabitants per km² must also be taken into account. Countries with fewer inhabitants in 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 137 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in North Macedonia is considered relatively safe. This corresponds to 6.6 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

In North Macedonia, 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
	North Macedonia
Roadways	14,200 km	6,867.49 km	551.61 m
Railroads	700 km	330.74 km	26.57 m
Waterways	0 km	0.00 km	0.00 m
Commercial harbors	0	0.00	0.000
Airports	2	0.97	0.078

	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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