Transport

Transport allows people to move across cities, countries, and continents. It allows us to trade goods and products across the world by road, rail, sea or air.

It has become an essential part of our lives, whether it’s getting to work or school; delivering essential services or necessities to different communities; or connecting people and industries across the world. It’s now a key driver of economic development.

But transport also negatively affects our health and the environment through road injuries and fatalities, air pollution , and CO₂ emissions which drive climate change .

On this page, you can find data, visualizations, and writing on transport patterns across the world, how this is changing, and its environmental impacts.

Related topics

• Trade and Globalization
• Migration
• Tourism
• CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Research & Writing

Tracking global data on electric vehicles

Explore data on electric car sales and stocks worldwide.

What share of global CO₂ emissions come from aviation?

Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions. But it has contributed around 4% to global warming to date.

Which form of transport has the smallest carbon footprint?

How can individuals reduce their emissions from transport?

Transport and CO₂ emissions

Cars, planes, trains: where do CO₂ emissions from transport come from?

Global inequalities in CO₂ emissions from aviation

Where in the world do people have the highest CO2 emissions from flying?

Sector by sector: where do global greenhouse gas emissions come from?

Transport, food, and CO₂ emissions

You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local

Very little of global food is transported by air; this greatly reduces the climate benefits of eating local

Interactive Charts on Transport

• Air passengers
• Average carbon intensity of new passenger vehicles
• CO₂ emissions from aviation
• CO₂ emissions from domestic air travel
• CO₂ emissions from transport
• Carbon footprint of travel per kilometer
• Energy intensity of transport per passenger-kilometer
• Fuel economy of new passenger vehicles
• Global airline passenger capacity and traffic
• Global airline passengers per year
• Global aviation demand, energy efficiency and CO₂ emissions
• New passenger vehicle registrations by type
• New passenger vehicles by type
• Number of air travel trips per capita
• Number of air travel trips vs. GDP per capita
• Number of new cars sold, by type
• Number of new passenger vehicles by type
• Participation time in travel per day
• Passenger-kilometers by air
• Passenger-kilometers by rail
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from aviation
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from commercial aviation, tourism-adjusted
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from domestic aviation
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from domestic aviation vs. GDP per capita
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from domestic aviation vs. land area
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from international aviation
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from international passenger flights, tourism-adjusted Graver & World Bank
• Per capita CO₂ emissions from transport
• Per capita domestic aviation passenger kilometers
• Per capita international aviation passenger kilometers
• Per capita passenger kilometers from air travel
• Registered vehicles per 1,000 people
• Relative share of passenger kilometers travelled by rail and road
• Share of airline seats filled by passengers
• Share of global CO₂ emissions from aviation
• Share of global CO₂ emissions from international aviation
• Share of global domestic aviation passenger kilometers
• Share of global passenger kilometers from air travel
• Share of global passenger kilometers from international aviation
• Share of new cars sold that are battery-electric and plug-in hybrid
• Share of new passenger vehicles that are battery electric
• Share of new passenger vehicles that are electric or plug-in hybrid
• Share of urban populations with convenient access to public transport
• Tonne-kilometers of air freight
• Total domestic aviation passenger kilometers
• Total passenger kilometers from air travel
• Total passenger kilometers from international aviation

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Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:

Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2021) - “Transport” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/transport' [Online Resource]

@article, title = , journal = , year = , note = >

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