thumb|upright=1.6|Map of the world with rail density (length of rail network divided by area of country) highlighted. This does not necessarily reflect actual rail use.
This is a list of countries by rail usage. Usage of rail transport may be measured in tonne-kilometres (tkm) or passenger-kilometres (pkm) travelled for freight and passenger transport respectively. This is the number of tonnes or passengers multiplied by the average distance of their journeys in kilometres.
Overview
Globally, rail freight is transported to the extent of almost 10,000 billion tonne-kilometres (9.842 billion long ton-miles or 11.023 billion short ton-miles) per year, of which about one-third occurs in India and a quarter each in the United States and China.
Of the 3,000 bn passenger-kilometres travelled across the world each year, 1,346 bn are travelled in China and 1,150 bn in India. Thus China and India together contribute almost half of world's passenger travel.
The average Swiss person travels 2,430 km by train each year (the highest in the world), almost 500 more than the average Japanese person (the second highest).
In 2014, there were about 1 million kilometres (621,400 miles) of railway in the world, a decrease of 3% compared to 2013.
- 350,000 km (218,000 mi) were in Europe and mainly used for passenger service.
- 370,000 km (230,000 mi) were in North America and mainly used for freight.
- 230,000 km (140,000 mi) were in Asia and used for both freight and passenger service.
|2024
|-
|2
||
|1,065
|2024
|-
|3
||
|429
|2023
|-
|4
||
|404
|2024
|-
|5
||
|136.3
|2023
|-
|6
||
|104.2
|2025
|-
|13
||
|29.8
|2019
|-
|17
||
|20.3
|2015
|-
|18
||
|19.8
|2015
|-
|19
||
|19.2
|2023-24
|-
|24
||
|15
|2023
|}
Passengers carried in rail transport per year
Countries with more than 20 million passengers per year. Unless otherwise specified, data come from the Railway Statistics 2019 Report by the International Union of Railways.
As mentioned in the notes, many of these figures are very incomplete, as they exclude metro/rapid transport rail services.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Rank
!width=120|Country
!data-sort-type="number" | Million<br />passengers
!Data year
!class=unsortable|Notes
|-
|1
| Japan
| 25,201
| 2019
| Includes all public and private rail services. For only the JR group rail companies, the figure in 2019 was 9,503 million passengers.
|-
|4
| Germany
| 2,938
| 2019
|-
|5
| Brazil
| 2,571
| 2024
| Includes all public and private, urban and long distance rail services. 3.63% increase from the 2.481 billion passengers carried in 2023. In 2024 long-distance services alone carried 1.259 million passengers, 0.05% of the total.
|-
|6
| France
| 1,880
| 2019
|-
|7
| United Kingdom
| 1,836.8
| 2019
|-
|8
|
| 1,157.2
| 2018
| Moscow Metro alone had 2.45 billion passengers in 2014
|-
|9
|
| 1,064.2
| 2018–19
|Combined Urban and Non-Urban Rail Passenger Traffic
| Madrid Metro alone had 657.2 million passengers in 2018.
|-
| 12
|
| 535
| 2019
| Amtrak had 32.5 million passengers in Fiscal Year 2019 (ending September 30). Among regional systems that report to the American Public Transportation Association, there were 502.5 million commuter rail riders in calendar year 2019.
|-
|13
|
| 511
| 2024
|
|-
|14
|
| 507.3
| 2024
|
|-
|15
|
| 474.5
| 2019
|
|-
|16
|
| 440.9
| 2016
|
|-
|17
|
| 439
| 2025
| Passengers carried by all rail passenger transport companies in Poland.
|-
|18
|
| 429.2
| 2019
||
|-
|19
|
| 426.2
| 2018
| 423,202,522 Buenos Aires commuter<br />2,036,792 regional<br />1,009,357 long distance
|-
|20
|
| 291.84
| 2018
|
|-
| 21
|
| 270
| 2019
|
|-
|22
|
|269
|2017–18
|
|-
|23
|
| 264.6
| 2019
|-
|24
|
| 246.94
| 2018
|
|-
|25
|
| 206.6
| 2019
|-
|27
|
| 175.5
| 2019
|-
|28
|
| 164.7
| 2019
|-
|29
|
|138.66
|2017
||
|-
|30
|
| 127.84
| 2018
||
|-
|31
|
| 119
| 2018
| Budapest Metro alone had 409.3 million passengers in 2017.
|-
|32
|
|106.9
|2019
|Via Rail, Canada's main intercity rail provider, transported 5 million passengers in 2019. Commuter railway systems in and around Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver transported an additional 101.9 million passengers in 2019.
|-
|33
|
| 92.8
| 2019
| 14.9 million / year long-distance<br />77.9 million / year in Helsinki commuter traffic
|-
|34
|
| 80.402
| 2019
| Oslo Metro alone had 122 million passengers in 2018.
|-
|35
|
| 80
| 2019
|-
| 37
|
| 67.9
| 2019
|-
|38
|
| 64.6
| 2017
| The Jerusalem Light Rail carried an additional 42.5 million passengers in 2017.
|-
| 39
|
| 57
| 2018
| Tren Suburbano statistics only
|-
| 40
|
| 55.7
| 2025
| Excludes rapid transit networks Ridership of 2 MRT and 2 LRT lines was omitted. Includes KL Monorail, 3 KTM and 2 KLIA lines. Total ridership of Metro and Rail Lines was 364.8 Million in 2025
|-
| 41
|
| 52.39
| 2018
|
|-
| 42
|
| 50.06
| 2019
| Bangkok MRT alone had 113.7 million passengers in 2018.
|-
| 44
|
| 48
| 2017
|
|-
| 45
|
| 46
| 2018
| Santiago Metro alone had 721 million passengers in 2018.
|-
| 46
|
| 41
| 2017
|
|-
| 47
|
| 39
| 2018
| Algiers Metro alone had 40 million passengers in 2018.
|-
| 48
|
| 35
| 2018
|
|-
| 49
|
| 35
| 2019
|-
| 50
|
| 31.3
| 2024
|
|-
| 51
|
| 28.09
| 2018
| Tehran Metro alone had 721 million passengers in 2016.
|-
| 52
|
| 22.9
| 2018
|
|-
| 53
|
| 21.84
| 2018
|
|-
| 54
|
| 21.59
| 2018
| Tashkent Metro alone had 71.2 million passengers in 2019.
|}
Passenger modal share for rail
The modal share of railway transport (excluding tram & metro) as compared to other modes of transport, based on Passenger-km.
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! Rank
! Country
! style="width:80pt;"| Modal share (%)
! class="unsortable" | year
|-
|1
|| || 32.9|| 2016
|-
|2
|
|32
|2021
|-
|3
|
|24.4
|2018
|-
|4
|| || 22.9 || 2024
|-
|5
|
|20.0
|2018
|-
|6
|| || 14 || 2024
|-
|7
|| || 12 || 2023
|-
|8
|| || 11.8 || 2023
|-
|21
|| || 6.8 || 2023
|}
Passenger rail by passenger-kilometres per capita
Countries with more than five billion passenger-kilometres travelled per year.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Country
!data-sort-type="number"|Kilometers/year
!Year
|-
|
|2,519
|2024
|-
|
|2,320
|2021
|-
|
|1,614
|2024
|-
|
|965
|2024
|2021
|-
|3||
|2,105
|2020
|-
|4
|
|975
|2024
|-
|6||
|413
|2025
|-
|—||
|261
|2014
|-
|8||
|237
|2011
|-
|9||
|236
|2012
|-
|10||
|135
|2014
|-
|11||
|126.9
|2017
|-
|12||
|113
|2019
|-
|13||
|56.2
|2025
|-
|14||
|45
|2014
|-
|15||
|31.8
|2014
|-
|17||
|22
|2012
|-
|18||
|22
|2013
|-
|19||
|21.7
|2014
|-
|21||
|21
|2014
|-
|22||
|21
|2013
|-
|38||
|6
|2011
|-
|39||
|5
|2014
|-
|40||
|4
|-
|53||
|1.4
|2016
|-
|54||
|1
|2012
|-
|55||
|1
|2011
|}
Tonnes carried in rail transport per year
Countries with more than ten million tonnes carried per year. Unless otherwise specified, data come from the Railway Statistics 2014 Report by the International Union of Railways.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Rank
!Country
!data-sort-type="number" | Million tonnes
!Data year
|-
|1||
|5,175
|2016
|-
|5||
|1,218
|2015
|-
|6||
|554.5
|2025
|-
|12||
|197
|2011
|-
|13||
|141
|2014
|-
|14||
|128
|2018
|-
|15||
|110.1
|2014
|-
|16||
|82
|2014
|-
|17||
|74
|2014
|-
|18||
|65
|2015
|-
|19||
|63
|2011
|-
|20||
|57
|2014
|-
|21||
|57
|2014
|-
|22||
|50
|2021
|-
|26||
|40
|2013
|-
|27||
|38
|2014
|-
|28||
|37
|2014
|-
|29||
|37
|2009
|-
|30||
|36
|2014
|-
|31||
|37
|2011
|-
|32||
|33
|2013
|-
|33||
|31
|2010
|-
|34||
|27
|2012
|-
|35||
|26
|2014
|-
|36||
|26
|2012
|-
|37||
|25
|2014
|-
|38||
|25
|2013
|-
|39||
|24
|2010
|-
|40||
|23
|2012
|-
|41||
|20
|1917
|-
|42||
|20
|2010
|-
|43||
|18
|2011
|-
|44||
|17
|2014
|-
|45||
|13
|2014
|-
|46||
|12
|2011
|-
|47||
|12
|2014
|-
|48||
|11
|2012
|-
|49||
|11
|2011
|-
|50||
|10
|2014
|-
|51||
|10
|2012
|}
Freight modal share for rail
The modal share carried by rail of all freight in a given country.
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! Rank
! Country
! Modal share (%)
! Data year
|-
|1
|
|68
|2009
|-
|2
|
|61
|2012
|-
|3
|
|60
|2012
|-
|7
|
|44
| 2016
|-
|12
|
| 27
|2024
|-
|14
|
| 24
| 2019
|-
|22
|
| 15
| 2007
|-
|}
Freight rail by tonne-kilometres per capita
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Rank
!Country
!Tonne-kilometre per capita
!Data year
|-
|1
|
|12,599
|
|-
|2
|
|10,932
|2024
|-
|3
|
|9,165
|
|-
|4
|
|2,308
|
|-
|5
|
|2,150
|2019
|-
|6
|
|1,873.4
|2024
|-
|7
|
|1,480
| 2013
|-
|8
|
|1,060
|
|-class="sortbottom" style="text-align:left;"
|
|
|782
|
|}
Brief railway statistics by country
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers" style="font-size:85%"
! rowspan=2|Country
! rowspan=2|Area<br />(million km<sup>2</sup>)
! rowspan=2|Pop.<br />(million)
! rowspan=2|Rail<br />company
! Net
! Double track
! Electrified
! HSR
! rowspan=2|Passenger-km<br />(billion)
! rowspan=2|Freight<br />tonne-km<br />(billion)
! rowspan=2|<br />(pass. km)
! Pass.
! Freight
! rowspan=2|Pass/ pop %
! rowspan=2|Elec %
|-
!colspan=4|(thousands of km)
!colspan=2|(modal %)
|-
|
| area|0.08
| population|8.57
| ÖBB
| Net.km| 9.8
| frt. Transport| 32.9
| freight share| 41
|-
|
| area|8.51
| population|212.58
| Multiple
| Net.km|31.7
| Dob.km|1.86
| frt. Transport|398.3
| CR
| Net.km|141
| Dob.km|83
| El.km|100
| HSR km|36
| pass. Transport|1580
|
|1.587
|6.729
|-
|
| area|0.036
| population|23
| TR
| Net.km|1
| Dob.km|0.67
| El.km|0.69
| HSR km|0.33
| pass. Transport|9
| frt. Transport|1
| HSR Transport|
| pass. share|
| freight share|
| pass. per population|
| elec transport %|
|-
|
| area|0.78
| population|79
| TCDD
| Net.km|9
| Dob.km|04
| El.km|1.9
| HSR km|0.25
| pass. Transport|6
| frt. Transport|10
| HSR Transport|
| pass. share|
| freight share|
| pass. per population|
| elec transport %|47