01
Start in 2006.
Nearly 55,000 vessels passed through the Bosphorus that year. The average ship was much smaller than the vessels crossing today.
The Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and, beyond it, the Mediterranean.
Falling vessel counts might suggest that the waterway became less busy. The data tell a different story.
2006
A smaller average vessel
02
The number of crossings began to fall.
But the ships did not simply disappear. The average vessel passing through the strait grew larger.
03
By 2025, the traffic looked different.
Vessel counts were down roughly 27%, while average vessel size had increased about 78%.
THE TRAFFIC CHANGED
Fewer vessels crossed the Bosphorus.
Annual vessel traffic fell 26.8% between 2006 and 2025.
VESSEL COUNT
A changing line chart comparing vessel traffic, total gross tonnage and average gross tonnage per vessel between 2006 and 2025. Each measure is indexed to 100 in 2006.
Indexed to 2006 = 100. Source: Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
01
Traffic declined.
Nearly 55,000 vessels crossed the Bosphorus in 2006. By 2025, that number had fallen to just over 40,000.
−26.8%
fewer vessels
02
Cargo capacity kept growing.
Even as fewer ships passed through the strait, their combined gross tonnage increased from about 476 million to 619 million.
+30.2%
more gross tonnage
03
Each crossing carried more.
Average gross tonnage per vessel climbed from roughly 8,670 in 2006 to more than 15,400 in 2025.
+77.8%
larger average vessel
A CHANGING MIX
The Bosphorus carries a different fleet today.
The growth was not evenly distributed. Container and chemical tanker traffic climbed over the past two decades, while general cargo crossings steadily declined. The Bosphorus today serves a different mix of vessels than it did in 2006.
About the data
This project uses annual Bosphorus transit data published by the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure between 2006 and 2025.
Average vessel size was calculated by dividing total gross tonnage by annual vessel counts. Vessel-type trends were indexed to 2006 to compare long-term changes across ship categories.
Maps were created using Mapbox Studio with custom GeoJSON layers. Additional charts were built with D3 and Flourish.
Sources: Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (vessel transit statistics, 2006–2025). Maps were created with Mapbox Studio using custom GeoJSON layers. Additional charts were built with D3 and Flourish. Ship illustrations were drawn digitally in Procreate.