Only by bus, Albanians among residents who use public transport the most in Europe

2026-03-12 07:16:40, Aktualitet CNA

Only by bus, Albanians among residents who use public transport the most in

Although Albanians have very limited non-personal means of transportation, having only buses at their disposal, they use the public system much more than residents of the European Union, who can travel by metro, trains, and trams.

Eurostat has published data on the use of public transport from different European countries. Nearly 17% of Albanians use public transport every day, ranking fifth in Europe, after Hungary, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg and higher than the European average of 10.7%.

Public transport includes buses, trams, trains and metro, etc., but does not include vehicles that can be rented privately at the user's discretion (e.g. taxis or bicycles), according to Eurostat's methodology.

20.4% of Albanians use public transport every week, third in Europe after Switzerland and Luxembourg. Nearly 21% use it every month, second only to Turkey. 11.6% use it less than once a month, among the lowest in Europe. 30.2% do not use public transport at all, again among the lowest in Europe.

Men use public transport more than women. According to Eurostat, 17.9% of men over 16 travel by bus every day, compared to 15.8% of women.

According to age groups in Albania, public transportation is used more by young people every day:
-33.8% of men from 16 to 29 years old;
-34.9% of women from 16 to 29 years old;
-15.3% of women from 30 to 64 years old;
-18.8% of men from 30-64 years old
– 4% of pensioners;

The high use of public transportation, despite the vehicles being limited to buses, is also related to the low number of vehicles per inhabitant in Albania.

According to other Eurostat data, in relation to population, Albania has a total of 443 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, which despite the increase remains among the lowest in Europe. For example, for cars alone, Albania had 328 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants in 2024, compared to the European average of 578.

Europe
According to Eurostat, in 2024, 10.7% of people (16 years and over) in the EU used some form of public transport every day, 11.6% used it every week, 10.0% every month, while 17.1% used it less than once a month. On the other hand, 50.6% did not use public transport at all.

Among EU countries, the largest share of the population not using public transport in 2024 was in Cyprus, with 85% of the population, followed by Italy (68.0%), Portugal (67.8%), France (65.1%), Slovenia (61.6%) and Greece (61.3%). At the other end of the scale was Luxembourg, where only 15.7% of people did not use public transport in 2024, followed by Estonia (26.6%) and Sweden (26.7%).

In terms of weekly use of public transport, Luxembourg recorded the highest share, with 23.1% of the population using it, followed by Latvia (19.2%) and Estonia (18.2%). /Monitor.al