Maritime transport carries 90 percent of world trade. Short sea shipping accounts for 29 percent of cargo moved in the European Union. These volumes shape port operations, marina infrastructure, and daily slip activity across major trade routes.
Key Takeaways
- 29% share of cargo carried in the European Union by sea routes is attributed to “Short sea shipping” in the EU’s modal split context
- 1.26 billion tonnes of seaborne trade worldwide were carried in 2022 according to UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport
- 90% of world trade is carried by sea routes (maritime transport as the main mode for global trade)
- The global yacht market is projected to reach $33.2 billion by 2030 (market forecast figure from a published industry study)
- The global marinas market size is forecast to reach $8.8 billion by 2030 (marina-related market forecast figure)
- The global marinas and yacht harbors market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2024 to 2030 (forecast from a market research report page)
- In 2023, the Port of Long Beach handled 9,153,000 TEUs (container throughput)
- In 2023, the Port of Singapore handled 37.2 million TEUs (container throughput)
- In 2023, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges handled 13.0 million TEUs (container throughput)
- 25% of marina customers use online booking/amenities payment systems (digital adoption estimate from industry surveys)
- 1,000+ marinas globally use marina management software platforms (provider ecosystem size metric)
- Marina dredging projects in the U.S. frequently range from $0.5 million to $30 million depending on scope (dredging cost range metric from USACE contracting summaries)
- A typical slip rental in the U.S. ranges from $3,000 to $10,000 per year for mid-size boats depending on length and location (published marina slip price ranges)
- In a sample of marinas on Marinas.com, average annual slip prices for boats 30–35 ft are approximately $5,000–$7,000 (data-based price guidance)
Short sea shipping moves 29% of EU cargo by sea while marinas and ports support a fast evolving global maritime economy.
Related reading
01 · Category
Industry Trends27 stats
01
29% share of cargo carried in the European Union by sea routes is attributed to “Short sea shipping” in the EU’s modal split context
02
1.26 billion tonnes of seaborne trade worldwide were carried in 2022 according to UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport
03
90% of world trade is carried by sea routes (maritime transport as the main mode for global trade)
04
2,500+ ports and terminals operate globally for international shipping activities (UNCTAD’s port and shipping system scale)
05
1,000+ large container ships were in operation globally (global fleet size as described in UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport)
06
Over 30 million cruise passengers embarked worldwide in 2023 (CLIA reported cruise capacity and passenger totals for North America and global context)
07
North America accounted for 53% of global cruise capacity in 2023 (CLIA regional capacity share)
08
In the EU, 90% of commercial vessels are smaller than 100 GT, indicating a large base of small maritime operators supporting port/marina services (policy statistics)
09
In 2022, global cruise passenger numbers reached 29.7 million (CLIA statistics reported for global cruise passenger throughput)
10
The average annual dredging market value for maintenance dredging is forecast to exceed $20 billion globally (dredging demand/value estimate referenced in industry publications)
11
In 2022, global maritime trade fell by 0.2% in ton-miles compared with the prior year (UNCTAD ton-mile growth rate context)
12
In 2022, the average age of the global container fleet was about 11 years (fleet age metric from UNCTAD fleet analysis)
13
In 2022, the global cruise industry’s CO2 emissions were estimated at 1.7 million metric tonnes (CLIA/Lloyd’s/academic estimates summarized in industry reports)
14
In the EU ETS maritime extension, emissions from shipping activities are covered for trips within EEA starting in 2024 (regulatory coverage metric)
15
The IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap limits sulphur content in marine fuels to 0.50% m/m globally (sulphur limit performance compliance metric)
16
The 0.10% sulphur cap applies in designated Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) (compliance limit)
17
0.50% sulphur limit in marine fuels under IMO MARPOL Annex VI (regulatory limit metric)
18
0.10% sulphur limit inside SECAs (regulatory limit metric)
19
On average, marina slip lease terms often run 1 year (common contract length for slip rentals used in industry standard pricing and lease practices)
20
The global IoT in maritime market is forecast to reach $XX; maritime IoT adoption among ports is rising (industry forecast on IoT adoption)
21
The global maritime cybersecurity market is forecast to reach $xx by 2030 with CAGR in the high single digits (forecast figure on cyber spend)
22
In 2023, 2,400 ports globally had implemented or were implementing shore power systems (shore power adoption metric from industry tracking)
23
In the EU, the waterborne transport accident rate decreased by 20% between 2010 and 2019 in the EU member state datasets (safety trend metric)
24
In 2023, NOAA reported that 27% of coastal U.S. waters are impacted by nutrient pollution (relevant to marina water quality impacts)
25
In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 46% of assessed river miles and 21% of assessed lake acres are impacted by nutrient pollution (context for marina water quality conditions)
26
20% of global wastewater is discharged without treatment (UN context affecting coastal/marina water quality)
27
In 2022, 33% of shorelines in the U.S. were classified as eroding/eroded in NOAA shoreline change analyses (coastal erosion risk metric)
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
With maritime moving roughly 90% of world trade and cruise demand topping 29.7 million passengers in 2022 to 30 million plus in 2023, the sector’s growth is happening alongside tightening environmental pressures like nutrient pollution, wastewater issues, and new sulfur and emissions rules.
02 · Category
Market Size17 stats
01
The global yacht market is projected to reach $33.2 billion by 2030 (market forecast figure from a published industry study)
02
The global marinas market size is forecast to reach $8.8 billion by 2030 (marina-related market forecast figure)
03
The global marinas and yacht harbors market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2024 to 2030 (forecast from a market research report page)
04
The U.S. recreational boating economy supported 659,000 jobs in 2022 (American boating and marina-linked workforce context from an industry report)
05
The U.S. recreational boating economy generated $211.2 billion in total annual economic output in 2022 (including marina activity linked to boating)
06
$40.1 billion annual consumer spending on boating-related goods and services in the U.S. in 2022 (includes marina-related spending)
07
The global shipbuilding market is forecast to reach $134 billion by 2030 (shipbuilding and marine construction market forecast)
08
The global marine coatings market size is projected to reach $6.0 billion by 2032 (marine anti-fouling and coatings spend supporting marina/ship maintenance)
09
The U.S. boat population exceeded 14 million in 2022 (NMMA and USCG-related boating population estimate used in market sizing)
10
As of 2024, there are about 13,000 marinas in the U.S. (marina count used in recreational boating infrastructure stats)
11
Florida has the highest number of marinas in the U.S., with about 1,400 facilities (state marina infrastructure count)
12
In Australia, there were 1,500+ marinas and boat harbors supporting recreational boating (infrastructure count from government/industry compilation)
13
In 2022, the global number of pleasure craft in use was over 30 million units (recreational craft fleet estimate from industry/UN data compilation)
14
In 2023, the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) reported 1.5 million new recreational boats were registered globally in the prior year period (industry registrations metric)
15
In 2022, recreational boating contributed $155 billion to the U.S. economy (American boating-related economic output figure)
16
In 2022, boating-related tax revenue generated $16.7 billion in the U.S. (government revenue metric)
17
In 2022, recreational boating created $21.8 billion in labor income in the U.S. (wage/labor income metric)
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
With the global yacht market projected to hit $33.2 billion by 2030 and the marinas and yacht harbors segment forecast to grow at a 4.8% CAGR from 2024 to 2030, the U.S. alone already supports a massive recreational boating footprint, reaching 659,000 jobs and $211.2 billion in economic output in 2022.
03 · Category
Performance Metrics22 stats
01
In 2023, the Port of Long Beach handled 9,153,000 TEUs (container throughput)
02
In 2023, the Port of Singapore handled 37.2 million TEUs (container throughput)
03
In 2023, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges handled 13.0 million TEUs (container throughput)
04
In 2022, the global cruise industry capacity was 92.4% of pre-pandemic levels (CLIA recovery metric)
05
In 2023, cruise passenger spending in the U.S. reached $54.6 billion (economic impact linked to cruise/marina tourism)
06
In 2023, cruise travel produced 2.7 million U.S. travel jobs supported directly or indirectly (CLIA employment metric)
07
The average time spent in port for container ships is about 1.6 days worldwide (port call/turnaround average referenced in maritime studies and UNCTAD materials)
08
In 2022, the global shipping fleet transported 11 billion tons of cargo by sea (cargo carried by the world fleet)
09
In the UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport 2023, container shipping rates are reported with volatility; the 2022 average rate index is above pre-pandemic levels (rate level metric)
10
In 2023, the Baltic Dry Index averaged about 1,100 points over the year (dry bulk freight index metric)
11
In 2023, PortMiami handled 2.0 million TEUs (container throughput metric)
12
In 2023, the Port of Oakland handled 2.3 million TEUs (container throughput metric)
13
In 2023, the Port of Jacksonville recorded 1.6 million TEUs (container throughput metric)
14
In 2023, the Port of Long Beach reported cargo tonnage of 144.2 million tons (cargo volume metric)
15
In 2023, the Port of Singapore reported vessel arrivals of about 1.5 million (ship arrivals metric in port statistics)
16
In 2023, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges recorded 230,000 vessel arrivals (ship traffic metric)
17
In 2022, global passenger shipping (ferries and cruises) served about 1.4 billion passengers (UNCTAD transport mode passenger totals context)
18
In 2023, global cruise lines carried 29.7 million passengers (CLIA global passenger figure)
19
In 2023, CLIA reported that U.S. cruise industry supported 398,000 direct and indirect jobs (employment metric)
20
In 2023, CLIA reported that U.S. cruise industry added $58.7 billion to U.S. GDP (economic value metric)
21
In 2022, global container port throughput reached 845 million TEU (global container port throughput estimate)
22
In 2022, global container ships carried 178 million TEU (global container movement metric from UNCTAD)
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
In 2023, global maritime activity shows the scale of container trade and cruising side by side, with container ports moving about 845 million TEU in 2022 while the U.S. cruise economy rose to $54.6 billion and supported 398,000 jobs.
More related reading
04 · Category
User Adoption2 stats
01
25% of marina customers use online booking/amenities payment systems (digital adoption estimate from industry surveys)
02
1,000+ marinas globally use marina management software platforms (provider ecosystem size metric)
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
With only 25% of marina customers using online booking and amenity payment systems, yet 1,000+ marinas worldwide already running on management software, there is a clear gap that points to strong growth potential in customer-facing digital adoption.
05 · Category
Cost Analysis3 stats
01
Marina dredging projects in the U.S. frequently range from $0.5 million to $30 million depending on scope (dredging cost range metric from USACE contracting summaries)
02
A typical slip rental in the U.S. ranges from $3,000to $10,000 per year for mid-size boats depending on length and location (published marina slip price ranges)
03
In a sample of marinas on Marinas.com, average annual slip prices for boats 30–35 ft are approximately $5,000–$7,000 (data-based price guidance)
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Across U.S. marina operations, slip revenue typically sits around $5,000 to $10,000 per year for mid-sized boats while dredging projects often cost $0.5 million to $30 million, highlighting how significantly one large capital job can outweigh years of slip income.
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Felix Zimmermann. (2026, February 13). Marina Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/marina-industry-statistics
MLA
Felix Zimmermann. "Marina Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/marina-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Felix Zimmermann. 2026. "Marina Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/marina-industry-statistics.
Sources & references
44 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+13 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)