Facts: The busiest ports
A total of just over nine million passengers traveled from and to Swedish ports during the period January to June 2023.
The five ports with the most passengers are:
Helsingborg – 2,365,000 passengers
Stockholm – 2,187,000 passengers
Ystad – 950,000 passengers
Visby – 775,000 passengers
Gothenburg – 599,000 passengers
Source: Maritime Administration
“The recovery from the pandemic continues and the number of passengers is increasing. At the same time, there is still concern about the security situation in the Baltic Sea,” says Jonas Franzen, acting director of communications at the Swedish Maritime Administration, in a press release.
Just over nine million passengers traveled from and to Swedish ports during the first half of the year, according to recent figures from the Swedish Maritime Administration. There are approximately ten percent more travelers than the previous year, but still around 20 percent fewer compared to before the corona pandemic.
During the corresponding period in 2019 – the last normal year before the pandemic and Russia’s major invasion of Ukraine – the number of passengers was 11.5 million.
The largest increase, among the ten ports with the largest number of passengers, has occurred in Helsingborg and Stockholm.
Cargo volumes in the Swedish ports fluctuate somewhat but have been relatively stable in recent years, according to the Maritime Administration. During the first half of 2023, a total of nearly 80 million tonnes of goods were loaded and unloaded to Sweden. This is a decrease of almost five percent compared to the previous year.
“The recession has probably started to show itself in freight traffic as well,” says Jonas Franzen.
Among the ten largest ports that handled goods in the country, it is Norrköping that increases the most in volume and Gothenburg the port that decreases the most. Several of the ports that are increasing in cargo volumes are located in Northern Sweden.