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Maritime

Maritime

1,020,000 passengers passed through Irish ports in 2021

Online ISSN: 2009-5643
CSO statistical release, , 11am
COVID-19 Release Information

This publication has been compiled during the COVID-19 crisis. The results contained in this publication reflect some of the impacts of the COVID-19 situation.

Main results

  • The number of vessels arriving in Irish ports and the gross tonnage of all arriving vessels in 2021 increased by 7% in both cases compared with 2020. 
  • 1,020,000 passengers passed through Irish ports in 2021, an increase of 25% compared with 2020.

Figure 9.1 shows that Irish ports handled nearly 54 million tonnes of goods in 2021. This represents an increase of 5% compared with 2020.

Figure 9.1: Total tonnage of goods handled by Irish ports, 2018 - 2021

Goods forwarded from Irish ports amounted to 17.4 million tonnes in 2021, while a total of 36.5 million tonnes of goods were received. See Table 9.1.

Figure 9.2 shows that Dublin port was the busiest port in 2021, handling 45% of all goods.

Table 9.1 Tonnage of goods handled by Irish ports classified by region of trade, 2018-2021
      '000
Region of trade2018201920202021
Goods handled    
 Foreign trade    
  Great Britain & Northern Ireland22,02821,29720,04016,843
  Other E.U.18,79519,49918,64322,525
  Non-E.U.3,7512,1932,1444,187
  Other ports8,2817,9108,3358,058
 Coastal trade2,2302,3412,2022,344
Total goods handled55,08653,24051,36453,958
       
Goods received    
 Foreign trade    
  Great Britain & Northern Ireland12,92512,56612,0999,974
  Other E.U.12,56512,79612,08814,542
  Non-E.U.3,1721,7851,6663,529
  Other ports7,4207,1587,2787,508
 Coastal trade1,0071,088961999
Total goods received37,08835,39234,09336,551
       
Goods forwarded    
 Foreign trade    
  Great Britain & Northern Ireland9,1038,7317,9416,870
  Other E.U.6,2316,7036,5557,983
  Non E.U.579408477659
  Other ports8627521,057550
 Coastal trade1,2231,2541,2411,346
Total goods forwarded17,99817,84817,27117,407
Source: CSO
Figure 9.2: Total tonnage of goods handled by Irish main ports, 2021
Table 9.2: Number of arrivals and gross tonnage of vessels, 2021
Table 9.3: Details of roll-on/roll-off traffic handled, 2021

Additional data

More detailed statistics on Maritime Transport can be found under “Data” and Statistics of Port Traffic publications.