VKMT & Mobility in Europe 2024

This report puts the trends in Vehicle Kilometres Travelled in Europe into context, assessing developments in the wider mobility market and key factors underlying the evolution of the market.

Demand in Europe for land-based passenger mobility rose from a little over 5.5 trillion passenger kilometers in 2004 to 6.2 trillion in 2019. The onset of the global financial crisis and then the Eurozone crisis resulted in stagnation between 2008 and 2011 and a decline in 2012 before a return to strong growth in the period 2013 to 2019, preceding the sharp pandemic-related decline in 2020.

In West Europe, per capita mobility was relatively steady prior to 2019, with a small decline through to 2012 followed by an upturn through to 2019. By the end of 2023, mobility demand had recovered to equal the pre-pandemic average but remained slightly below the high of 2019.

In Central Europe there was strong growth in mobility in the period through to 2019. The pandemic-related decline in 2020 was less pronounced than in West Europe. Aggregate mobility remains slightly below the high of 2019.