Transport and infrastructure in Poland
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Poland 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, Poland ranks 35th in the world with 0.49 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 18,538 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 54.39 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 15.84 billion passenger-kilometers in 2021.
The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the 440 km of coastline. In 2020, about 2.92 million freight containers were transported.
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Back to overview: Poland
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 420,000 km. For each of the country's 37.75 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 11.13 meters. This puts Poland in 48th place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 121 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 3681 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Poland 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.
In Poland, 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 in January 1st, 1970. Regionally, this also applied before, now it exists for all parts of the country. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Poland | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 420,000 km | 11,126.68 km | 1,343.23 m |
| Railroads | 18,500 km | 491.11 km | 59.29 m |
| Waterways | 3,997 km | 105.89 km | 12.78 m |
| Commercial harbors | 143 | 3.79 | 0.000 |
| Airports | 15 | 0.40 | 0.048 |
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)
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