Countries by Shipping Traffic

What Container Port Traffic (Teu) Measures

Container Port Traffic (Teu) is a comparative indicator tracked across countries by the World Bank. It provides a quantitative basis for cross-national comparison, enabling researchers and policymakers to benchmark national performance on this dimension against global peers.

Why This Ranking Matters

Examining Container Port Traffic (Teu) across all countries reveals patterns that might not be obvious at the national level. Regional clusters, outlier nations, and historical trajectories all become clearer when the full global picture is assembled in a single ranking.

Global Range

Values range from 6.2K (Equatorial Guinea) to 268.99 million (China) — a 43.3K-fold difference across 123 countries.

Regional Patterns

Asian countries dominate this ranking, holding 12 of the top 20 positions. This strong regional concentration suggests shared economic, geographic, or policy factors that drive higher values across the continent.

The distribution is highly right-skewed — a few countries have exceptionally high values that pull the average well above the median. The median (1.15 million) is far more representative than the mean (6.83 million).

Notable Outliers

China stands far above the rest, with a value 332% higher than second-place United States. This extraordinary lead suggests unique national circumstances — geographic scale, resource endowment, or policy choices — that set it apart from even its closest competitors.

Continental Leaders

Asia

China

268.99 million

North America

United States

62.21 million

Europe

Spain

17.16 million

South America

Brazil

11.68 million

Oceania

Australia

9.38 million

Africa

Morocco

8.84 million