Transport and infrastructure in Portugal

Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Portugal 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, Portugal ranks 58th in the world with 0.24 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 2,526 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 2.70 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 4.49 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 1,793 km of coastline. In 2020, about 2.80 million freight containers were transported.

› Airports in Portugal

Back to overview: Portugal

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 82,900 km. For each of the country's 10.33 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 8.03 meters. This puts Portugal in 69th place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 112 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 846 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Portugal is considered relatively safe. This corresponds to 8.2 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

In Portugal, 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 1st, 1928. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Portugal
Roadways	82,900 km	8,028.94 km	898.88 m
Railroads	2,500 km	244.65 km	27.39 m
Waterways	210 km	20.34 km	2.28 m
Commercial harbors	726	70.31	0.008
Airports	18	1.74	0.195

	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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