Vehicle traffic in Spanish ports in 2025: the year in review

Spanish ports handled 3.75 million new vehicles in 2025, 2.3% more than in 2024 (84,632 new vehicles more). This is the year-end balance according to Puertos del Estado’s monthly statistics, with December data for the 28 port authorities.

The high point of the 2017–2025 series is 2023, with 3.89 million new vehicles: 2025 was 3.6% below it and ranks 2nd of the 9 years with data.

In the 2025 ranking, the ports moving up on 2024 are Las Palmas (from 5th to 4th), Tarragona (from 7th to 6th) and Baleares (from 9th to 8th); those moving down are Santander (from 4th to 5th) and Pasaia (from 6th to 7th). The top three positions are unchanged.

Passenger vehicles (the cars carried on ferries): 7.44 million vehicles in 2025, 2.9% more than in 2024. Santa Cruz de Tenerife ranks first on this measure, with 1.91 million vehicles.

Barcelona ranks first among port authorities with 716,658 new vehicles in 2025 (5.1% more than in 2024). It is followed by Vigo (671,665 new vehicles) and Valencia (524,490 new vehicles). Together, the three account for 51% of the total.

The largest increases were recorded by Bahía de Cádiz (+103.5%), Málaga (+35.4%) and Las Palmas (+29.5%); the steepest falls by Pasaia (−12.5%), Valencia (−9.5%) and Tarragona (−2.5%). The comparison is limited to port authorities that account for at least 1% of the total, so that an extreme swing at a small player does not distort the picture.

The rest of the top ten are Las Palmas (4th, 465,903 new vehicles, +29.5%), Santander (5th, 398,870 new vehicles, +7.4%), Tarragona (6th, 216,101 new vehicles, −2.5%), Pasaia (7th, 211,743 new vehicles, −12.5%), Baleares (8th, 141,111 new vehicles, +0.9%), Málaga (9th, 127,099 new vehicles, +35.4%) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (10th, 111,668 new vehicles, +28.9%).

At the bottom of the table are Vilagarcía (321 new vehicles), Cartagena (306 new vehicles) and Castellón (107 new vehicles), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.

The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 74% of the total and 7 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 4.5%. 17 of the 26 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2024, 12 of them by double digits, and 9 fell.

Of the 12 months of 2025 with data, 7 are above the same month of 2024 and 5 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is down 0.8% on the same months of 2024; the largest year-on-year difference was in March (up 21.8%); the highest point in the series was March, at 387,705, and the lowest August, at 208,848.

Between 2017 and 2025 the figure went from 3.48 M to 3.75 M, an increase of 7.7% over 8 years (+0.9% a year on average). The best year was 2023 (3.89 M) and the worst 2021 (2.42 M).

Puertos del Estado separates vehicles shipped as cargo (new vehicles exported or imported on car carriers or ro-ro ships) from vehicles travelling with passengers (the cars of ferry travellers). The first measures automotive industry logistics; the second follows passenger traffic to the Balearic and Canary Islands and across the Strait.

Puertos del Estado. To explore the data in detail, use PortStats · vehicles as cargo, annual series or see the original source.