Road freight transport in the EU rose to 13.29 billion tonnes of goods in 2025, up 1.8% on 2024.
The largest category by weight was metal ores and other mining and quarrying products, totalling 3.04 billion tonnes and accounting for 22.9% of all goods moved by road, Eurostat reported on Thursday.
Food products, beverages and tobacco followed with 1.61 billion tonnes (12.1%), alongside other non-metallic mineral products with 1.60 billion tonnes (12.1%).
Eurostat also reported changes when measuring road freight “performance” in tonne-kilometres (tkm) — a standard measure combining the weight of goods carried with the distance travelled.
Food products, beverages and tobacco accounted for 311.1 billion tkm, or 16.6% of the EU total.
Grouped goods — mixed loads transported together — came next with 237.1 billion tkm (12.6%), followed by agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing products at 206.3 billion tkm (11.0%).
Dangerous goods made up 4% of road freight activity
Dangerous goods accounted for 4.0% of all road freight transport in 2025 when measured in tonne-kilometres, Eurostat said, defining these goods as including flammable liquids, toxic substances and explosive substances.
Finland recorded the highest share of dangerous goods in its overall road freight transport at 9.8%, followed by Ireland at 7.8% and Cyprus at 7.5%.
The lowest shares were reported in Lithuania (0.7%), with Portugal and Slovakia both at 1.9%.
