World Transportation Profile

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Railwaystotal: 1,148,186 km (2013)
Roadwaystotal: 64,285,009 km (2013)
Waterways2,293,412 km (2017)

top ten longest rivers: Nile (Africa) 6,693 km; Amazon (South America) 6,436 km; Mississippi-Missouri (North America) 6,238 km; Yenisey-Angara (Asia) 5,981 km; Ob-Irtysh (Asia) 5,569 km; Yangtze (Asia) 5,525 km; Yellow (Asia) 4,671 km; Amur (Asia) 4,352 km; Lena (Asia) 4,345 km; Congo (Africa) 4,344 km

note 1: rivers are not necessarily navigable along the entire length; if measured by volume, the Amazon is the largest river in the world, responsible for about 20% of the Earth's freshwater entering the ocean

note 2: there are 20 countries without rivers: 3 in Africa (Comoros, Djibouti, Libya), 1 in the Americas (Bahamas), 8 in Asia (Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen), 3 in Europe (Malta, Monaco, Holy See), 5 in Oceania (Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tonga, Tuvalu); these countries also do not have natural lakes

top ten largest natural lakes (by surface area): Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan) 372,960 sq km; Lake Superior (Canada, United States) 82,414 sq km; Lake Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) 69,490 sq km; Lake Huron (Canada, United States) 59,596 sq km; Lake Michigan (United States) 57,441 sq km; Lake Tanganyika (Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zambia) 32,890 sq km; Great Bear Lake (Canada) 31,800 sq km; Lake Baikal (Russia) 31,494 sq km; Lake Nyasa (Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania) 30,044 sq km; Great Slave Lake (Canada) 28,400 sq km

note 1: the areas of the lakes are subject to seasonal variation; only the Caspian Sea is saline, the rest are fresh water

note 2: Lakes Huron and Michigan are technically a single lake because the flow of water between the Straits of Mackinac that connects the two lakes keeps their water levels at near-equilibrium; combined, Lake Huron-Michigan is the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world

note 3: the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m), and also the largest freshwater lake by volume (23,600 cu km), is Lake Baikal in Russia
Ports and terminalstop twenty container ports as measured by Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) throughput: Shanghai (China) - 43,303,000; Singapore (Singapore) - 37,195,636; Ningbo (China) - 27,530,000; Shenzhen (China) - 25,770,000; Guangzhou (China) - 23,236,200; Busan (South Korea) - 21,992,001; Qingdao (China) - 21,010,000; Hong Kong (China) - 18,361,000; Tianjin (China) - 17,264,000; Rotterdam (Netherlands) - 14,810,804; Dubai (UAE) - 14,111,000; Port Kelang (Malaysia) - 13,580,717; Antwerp (Belgium) - 11,860,204; Xiamen (China) - 11,122,200; Kaohsiung (Taiwan) - 10,428,634; Los Angeles (US) - 9,337,632; Hamburg (Germany) - 9,274,215; Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia) - 9,100,000; Dalian (China) - 8,760,000; Laem Chabang (Thailand) - 8,106,928 (2019)
Merchant marinetotal: 98,140

by type: bulk carrier 11,965, container ship 5,371, general cargo 19,116, oil tanker 11,201, other 50,487 (2020)
Airportstotal: 41,820 (2020)

top ten by passengers (2020 preliminary): Guangzhou (CAN) 43,767,558; Atlanta (ATL) - 42,918,685; Chengdu (CTU) 40,741,509; Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) 39,364,990; Shenzhen (SZX) 37,916,054; Beijing (PEK) - 34,513,827; Denver, CO (DEN) 33,741,129; Kunming (KMG) 32,990,805; Shanghai (PVG) 31,165,641; Xi'an (XIY)  31,073,924 (2020 preliminary)

top ten by passengers (2019): Atlanta (ATL) 110,531,300; Beijing (PEK) - 100,011,438; Los Angeles, CA (LAX) 88,068,013; Dubai, UAE (DXB) 86,396,757; Tokyo (HND) 85,505,054; Chicago (ORD) 84,649,115; London (LHR) 80,888,305; Shanghai (PVG) 76,153,455; Paris (CDG) 76,150,009; Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) 75,066,956; note - 2019 numbers included to allow for a comparison with the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on international air travel in 2020

top ten by cargo (metric tons): Memphis, TN (MEM) - 4,613,431; Hong Kong (HKG) - 4,468,089; Shanghai (PVG) - 3,686,627; Anchorage, AK (ANC) - 3,157,682; Louisville, KY (SDF) - 2,917,243; Incheon (ICN) - 2,822,370; Taipei (TPE) - 2,342,714; Los Angeles, CA (LAX) 2,229,476; Doha, Qatar (DOH) 2,175,292; Miami, FL (MIA) 2,137,699 (2020 preliminary)
Heliports6,524 (2013)

Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021