People in the European Union took 8.7 billion rail trips throughout the previous year, according to a report from Eurostat.

This massive volume of travel amounted to a total of 444.5 billion passenger-kilometres across the member states.

Germany and France emerged as the largest overall contributors to the performance of the continental rail network.

Statistics show that Germany recorded 109.1 billion passenger-kilometres, while France followed closely with 107.3 billion passenger-kilometres.

Italy occupied the third position in the rankings, contributing 55.9 billion passenger-kilometres to the total figure.

In contrast, six member states across the bloc recorded less than 1 billion passenger-kilometres during the same period.

Lithuania and Estonia each registered 0.4 billion passenger-kilometres, marking some of the lowest activity levels in the union.

Luxembourg accounted for 0.6 billion passenger-kilometres, while Latvia and Greece each reported 0.7 billion passenger-kilometres.

Slovenia completed the group of smaller contributors by recording 0.9 billion passenger-kilometres.

When measured relative to population, the highest ratio of passengers per capita was found in Luxembourg at 46.2.

Austria and Denmark also showed high engagement with rail travel, reporting ratios of 35.6 and 35.2 respectively.

The lowest ratios of passengers per capita in the region were documented in Greece at 1.4 and Lithuania at 1.8.

Bulgaria recorded a ratio of 3.3, placing it among the countries with the least frequent rail usage per resident.

The data highlights a significant geographical disparity in how different European populations utilise their national rail infrastructure.

Large central European economies continue to drive the vast majority of total passenger distance recorded on the continent.

However, the per capita figures demonstrate that smaller nations can achieve higher levels of individual rail dependency than their larger neighbours.

These figures provide essential context for the current legislative efforts in Brussels to create a more integrated and seamless rail market.