Almost 17 million passengers used rail services (excluding Luas users) between 01 January and 04 May 2025, up 8% when compared with the same period in 2024 (16.8 million vs 15.6 million) (See Transport Dashboard).
From January to April 2025, there were 54 road deaths, a drop of 18% when compared with the same period in 2024 (See Road Safety).
There were 92,030 driving test applications received in the first four months of 2025, a decline of 3% when compared with the same period in 2024 (See Driver and Vehicle Testing).
Just under 41 million people used the five main Irish airports in 2024, a 5% rise on the figure for 2023 (40,983,338 vs 39,186,401) (See Aviation).
Road safety statistics show that in 2024, there were 172 road deaths compared with 180 in the same period in 2023, a fall of 4% (See Road Safety).
There were fewer new private cars licensed for the first time in 2024 than in 2023, down 1% from 117,464 to 116,683 (See Vehicles Licensed).
The number of both female and male drivers with full driving licenses increased by 2% between 2022 and 2023, growing from 1,389,381 to 1,418,772 for female drivers, and from 1,597,492 to 1,636,642 for male drivers (See Driver and Vehicle Testing).
The Transport Hub was developed by the CSO in 2023 using the latest data from the CSO and other public service bodies to provide a comprehensive overview on transport statistics in Ireland.
Users can find useful information about safety statistics on roads, detailed data on vehicles licensed, estimated number of weeks to driving test invite, passenger numbers on public and aviation transport, number of penalty points issued along with number of drivers with penalty points, tonnage of goods carried on road, by sea and air, and many more transport statistical data.
CSO data in the Hub will continue to be updated as new releases are published while data from other sources will automatically be updated once they become available. The Transport Hub uses our open data portal, data.cso.ie or PxStat, which allows users to search for data, download it, and create visuals in a way that best suits their needs.
The CSO welcome comments and suggestions from users on this platform which can be sent to transport@cso.ie.
The total number of new private cars licensed in 2024 decreased slightly by 1% in comparison with the annual figure of 2023 (116,683 vs 117,424).
The number of used (imported) cars licensed increased by 23% (61,838 vs 50,381) over the same period (See Vehicles Licensed).
There were 83,486 driving test applicants waiting at the end of April 2025 compared with 58,860 in the same month in 2024 (See Driver and Vehicle Testing).
Penalty-point endorsement notices fell by 6% between 2022 and 2023 (193,706 vs 181,497) (See Penalty Points).
There were 172 road fatalities in 2024, eight less than the number recorded in 2023 (See Road Safety).
There was a decrease of 1% in the total kilometres travelled on Irish roads from 2022 to 2023 (47,604 million vs 47,296 million). The average kilometres travelled per private car declined from 15,423 to 15,196 (See Road Traffic Volumes).
In 2023, a total of 165.2 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 164.3 million tonnes in 2022.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in 2023 was 1.8 billion kilometres, which was the same as that recorded in 2022 (See Road Freight Transport).
Just less than 41.0 million people used Irish airports in 2024, the highest number of passengers recorded since the series began in 2013.
Almost 1.8 million or 5% more passengers used Irish airports in 2024 compared with 2023.
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in 2024. The top route for both Cork and Shannon airports was London-Heathrow, for Knock airport it was London-Stansted, and for Kerry airport it was Dublin.
Air freight handled by Irish airports in 2024 was up by 12% compared with 2023 (See Aviation).
The number of passengers travelling on the DART grew by 25% between 2022 and 2023 (15.9 million vs 19.9 million). Passengers on the mainline and other train services grew by 28% over the same period (10.3 million vs 13.2 million) (See Public Transport).
Total tonnes of goods handled by Irish ports was 51.0 million tonnes in 2024, an increase of 7% when compared with 2023.
Goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 15.6 million tonnes in 2024, while a total of 35.5 million tonnes of goods were received.
During 2024, 11,958 vessels arrived in Irish ports, compared with 12,191 in 2023.
Dublin port accounted for 57% of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports in 2024 (See Maritime).
The number of taxis remained relatively constant from 2022 to 2023 (13,014 vs 13,028). Over the same period, the number of wheelchair accessible taxis rose by 9% from 3,206 to 3,506 (See Small Public Service Vehicles).
The number of new electric cars licensed reduced by 24% in 2024 when compared with 2023 (17,191 vs 22,493). The percentage share of new electric cars licensed was 15% in 2024 compared with 19% in 2023.
Petrol/electric and diesel/electric hybrid new cars licensed for the first time grew by 25% in 2024. Petrol or diesel electric plug-in hybrid new cars licensed rose by 11% in 2024 compared with 2023 (11,060 vs 9,972).
The number of new plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) cars licensed for the first time in the first four months of 2025 rose by 82% when compared with the same period in 2024 (9,569 vs 5,245). This has driven up the share of hybrids among new private cars from 31% to 40%.
The most recent week available (week commencing 28 April) for 2025 shows an increase of 2% in the number of passenger journeys on public transport (excl. Luas) when compared with the same week in 2024 (5,541,526 vs 5,409,200) (See Sustainability).
| Damien Lenihan | (+353) 21 453 5424 |
|---|---|
| Noreen Dorgan | (+353) 21 453 5260 |
| Barry Kelly | (+353) 21 453 5588 |
| transport@cso.ie | |
| pressoffice@cso.ie |
-- ENDS --
Transport Hub Update
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 May 2025) published an update to the Transport Hub and Transport Dashboard.
The Transport Hub has been developed using the latest data from both the CSO and other public service bodies to provide a comprehensive overview on transport statistics in Ireland. The Hub provides a wide range of information and is broken down into 11 main themes: Vehicles Licensed, Driver and Vehicle Testing, Penalty Points, Road Safety, Road Traffic Volumes, Road Freight Transport, Aviation, Public Transport, Maritime, Small Public Service Vehicles, and Sustainability & Transport (See Editor’s Note below for more information).
The Transport Dashboard provides users with faster access to transport data using a small set of indicators. These include the timeliest data on new private cars licensed, fuel excise clearances, road fatalities, public transport journeys, traffic volumes, the number of ship arrivals, and the number of passengers handled by the main airports. Each indicator on the Transport Dashboard will be updated as soon as new data is available, providing users with the most timely access to transport statistics.
Commenting on the Transport Hub, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Section, said: “To facilitate a growing need for transport statistics, the CSO created a Transport Hub so people can access the most up-to-date information on key topics as it is updated, whether that is on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
The purpose of the Hub is to collate transport statistics from the CSO and other public sector organisations, including the Department of Transport (DoT), the Road Safety Authority, the National Transport Authority (NTA), Revenue, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The Hub was designed to increase the frequency of updates and simplify the process of accessing transportation-related information from a single, easily accessible source.
The structure of the Hub allows the flexibility to add new data as it becomes available, to include new topics, and to have more regular updates. The CSO welcome comments and suggestions from users on this platform which can be sent to transport@cso.ie
Looking at the most up-to-date data, we can see there were 64,299 new private cars licensed in the first four months of 2025, an increase of 3% when compared with the same period in 2024. The use of public transport use is rising, with almost 17 million rail journeys (excluding the Luas), taken between 01 January and 04 May 2025, which was up 8% on the same period last year. Passenger journeys on all public transport (excluding Luas) also rose, with the number of journeys up by 2% for the week beginning 28 April 2025 when compared with the same week in 2024 (5,541,526 vs 5,409,200). There were 54 road fatalities in the first four months of 2025, compared with 66 fatalities in the same period in 2024, or a fall of 18%.”
Transport Hub Highlights: