Road safety statistics show that from January to May 2026, there were 70 road deaths compared with 66 in January to May 2025. In total, there were 183 road deaths in 2025, up 7% on 2024 (See Road Safety).
The number of new electric private cars licensed for the first time from January to May 2026 rose by 52% when compared with the same five-month period in 2025 (18,041 vs 11,877) (See Vehicles Licensed).
There was an 11% increase in the total number of passengers using the Luas in the week beginning 25 May 2026 compared with the same week in 2025 (1,258,421 vs 1,137,869) (See Transport Dashboard).
Almost 22 million rail journeys (excluding the Luas), were taken between 01 January and 24 May 2026, which was up 13% on the same period in 2025 (See Transport Dashboard).
The total number of current driving licences went up by 3% in 2025 compared with 2024, from 3,649,465 to 3,538,732 driving licences (See Driver and Vehicle Testing).
Learner permit numbers grew by 4% from 375,190 in 2024 to 389,302 in 2025 (See Driver and Vehicle Testing).
Tonnage of goods transported by road increased by 2% between 2024 and 2025 from 165.2 million tonnes to 169.1 million tonnes (See Road Freight Transport).
The number of passengers using Cork, Dublin, Knock, Shannon and Kerry airports increased by 6% in 2025 when compared with 2024 (43,490,089 vs 40,987,765) (See Aviation).
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.
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, accessible source.
Users can find 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.
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 Transport Hub uses the CSO’s 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 new platform which can be sent to transport@cso.ie.
The total number of new private cars licensed in January to May 2026 rose by 5% in comparison with the same five-month period in 2025 (76,014 vs 72,702).
The number of used (imported) cars licensed increased by 36% (37,888 vs 27,879) over the same period (See Vehicles Licensed).
Some 136,104 driving test applications were received in January to May 2026. This was an increase of 17% on the same period in 2025 (116,295). Driving tests delivered grew by 31% over the first five months of 2026 (120,967) when compared with the same period in 2025 (92,327) (See Driver and Vehicle Testing).
In May 2026, 22,119 drivers had accumulated penalty points of which 19% (4,309) were accounted for by Dublin drivers (See Penalty Points).
There were 14 fatalities for pedal cyclists on the road in Ireland in 2025, an increase of 17% on the 2024 figure of 12, while the number of serious injuries for pedal cyclists rose by 24%, from 213 to 265 (See Road Safety).
The average traffic volume for light goods vehicles on the road between 2024 and 2025 increased by 8% from 140,978 to 152,188 (See Transport Dashboard).
Of the 169.1 million tonnes of goods transported by road in 2025, goods vehicles involved in delivering materials to road works or building sites carried 63.0 million tonnes, the highest tonnage recorded among all categories of work carried out by road transport vehicles.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in 2025 was 2.1 billion kilometres, which was an 11% increase on the distance covered in 2024 (2,112,000,000 vs 1,896,000,000) (See Road Freight Transport).
A record 43.5 million passengers passed through Irish airports in 2025, the highest number of passengers recorded since the series began in 2013.
More than 2.5 million or 6% of passengers used Irish airports in 2025 compared with 2024.
London-Heathrow, Amsterdam-Schiphol, and Manchester were the most popular routes for passengers travelling through Dublin airport in 2025. The top route for Cork and Shannon airports was London-Heathrow, while London-Luton was the most popular route for Knock and Kerry airports.
In Quarter 1 (Q1) 2026, 9.1 million passengers passed through the five main Irish airports, up 11% on the same period in 2025 (See Aviation).
The number of passengers travelling on the DART increased by 6% between 2024 and 2025 (21.3 million vs 22.6 million). Passengers on the mainline and other train services increased by 9% over the same period (14.7 million vs 16.0 million) (See Public Transport).
The tonnage of goods handled by Irish ports in 2025 was 54 million tonnes, an increase of 6% when compared with 2024.
Goods from Irish ports amounted to 17 million tonnes in 2025, up 9% when compared with 2024 (17,014 vs 15,590).
During 2025, 11,861 vessels arrived in the main Irish ports a slight decrease compared with 2024 (11,861 vs 11,958).
Dublin port accounted for 6,683 (56%) of all vessel arrivals in Irish ports in 2025
The tonnage of goods handled by the eight main Irish ports in Q1 2026 was 12.7 million tonnes, a decrease of 2% when compared with Q1 2025 (See Maritime).
The number of taxis remained relatively constant from 2024 to 2025 (12,984 vs 12,854). Over the same period, the number of wheelchair accessible taxis increased by 14% from 4,055 to 4,627 (See Small Public Service Vehicles).
The number of new electric cars licensed grew by 52% from 11,877 in January to May 2025 to 18,041 for the same five-month period in 2026. The percentage share of new electric cars licensed in this period has risen to 24% from 15% in the first five months of 2025.
Petrol /electric and diesel/electric hybrid new cars licensed for the first time grew by 8% in 2025 when compared with 2024. Petrol or diesel electric plug-in hybrid new cars licensed rose by 65% in 2025 compared with 2024 (18,237 vs 11,060).
The number of new petrol and electric hybrid cars licensed for the first time in the first five months of 2026 rose by 18% when compared with the same period in 2025 (19,695 vs 16,736). This has driven up the share of hybrids among new private cars from 39% to 42%.
The most recent week available, week commencing 18 May 2026, shows an increase of 8% in the number of passenger journeys on all public transport (excluding Luas) when compared with the same week in 2025 (5,485,700 vs 5,061,156) (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 |
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Transport Hub Update
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (30 June 2026) 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).
Commenting on the Transport Hub, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, 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 on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Looking at the most up-to-date data, we can see there were 76,014 new private cars licensed in January to May 2026, an increase of 5% when compared with the same five-month period in 2025. The use of public transport is rising, with almost 22 million rail journeys (excluding the Luas), taken between 01 January and 24 May 2026, which was up 13% on the same period in 2025. Passenger journeys on all public transport (excluding Luas) also rose, with the number of journeys up by 2% for the week beginning 18 May 2026 when compared with the same week in 2025 (5,485,700 vs 5,061,156). There were 70 road fatalities in the first five months of 2026, compared with 66 fatalities in the same period in 2025, a rise of 6%.”
Transport Hub Highlights: