Explore ridership data from 30 cities around the globe

High levels of public transport ridership is the sign of a healthy city. It means less road congestion, more people with access to opportunity, and more people moving sustainably and actively. If that sounds like our mission as the public transport sector, then it is useful to track and monitor the evolution of ridership in cities worldwide.

For five years, UITP has collected the variations in ridership from operators and authorities in some 30 cities around the globe. This data comes from various available sources, including figures provided by members. Yes, knowing a city’s ridership data is helpful – but being able to contextualise and compare that data with other cities and modes is invaluable. That’s why we provide regular ridership reports to explore the data further and pick out insights.

And we want your city too! The more cities that share their mobility data, the better the snapshot we all get of what is happening in the world of public transport. Have a question? Get in touch with us to find out how to collaborate with us on this project.

Every quarter, members can share the variation in ridership figures with our expert data team, who will publish the data twice a year to show trends in mobility and ridership. In return, you will also gain access to our regular ridership reports. Like this, you can compare ridership data across cities, time, regions, and modes.

As highlighted in Economic Outlook 2024, 83% of operators surveyed expected ridership growth in 2024 compared to 2023. What was the reality? Let’s take a peek at the mobility data in our dashboard.

A majority of the cities in our dataset recorded a growing or stable trend in 2024 compared to 2023. Still, at the close of 2023 overall ridership was 10% lower than it was in 2019. But this differs by region. MENA led the world’s growth in public transport ridership, followed by the Asia-Pacific region. North American metro, bus, and light rail ridership remains 45% down from 2019. Latin America also recorded a negative trend.

Still, the recovery is advancing fast. North American cities like Chicago, Toronto, and Washington all recorded rises in ridership from 2023, with others like Sydney and Sevilla standing out too. Indeed, looking at all kinds of cities helps put each data point into context.

While comparing ridership data across cities and modes is useful for identifying mobility trends, comparing different datasets can help spot any outliers or inconsistencies. And so, UITP’s data team looked at Google mobility reports, which uses anonymous data from users of Google Maps to explore the footfall of transport hubs, such as bus stops or metro and rail stations. Putting together this data and the figures from UITP members showed a strong correlation.

In other words, the trends and variations shared by UITP members and found by Google were very similar. For instance, take the ridership data of Hong Kong:

Google’s data finishes in 2022, giving us an insight into how ridership evolved during the height of the pandemic, while showing a strong correlation with UITP’s mobility data that continues to the present day. Our ridership reports are published twice a year, detailing ridership evolution as a percentage variation in each city over time. This provides a reliable and timely snapshot of public transport ridership.

In addition to the reports, any member mobility data that is shared with UITP will be used in other knowledge content to further advance the public transport sector.

Is your city missing? Get in touch with us to find out how you can share your city’s ridership data and gain access to the full data.

This analysis integrates publicly available data from Google Community Mobility Reports, which aggregates anonymised user location data. The data is subject to Google’s collection policies and limitations. UITP does not control, process, or verify the accuracy of this dataset and advises users to consult Google’s terms of use for further details. See the Google Privacy policy here.