Country Comparison > Merchant marine

Rank	Country	Merchant marine
1	Panama	5,764
2	Liberia	1,948
3	China	1,775
4	Malta	1,281
5	Bahamas, The	1,213
6	Singapore	1,131
7	Russia	1,130
8	Antigua and Barbuda	1,059
9	Hong Kong	1,009
10	Indonesia	965
11	Marshall Islands	902
12	Cyprus	868
13	Greece	824
14	Korea, South	738
15	Norway	715
16	Japan	676
17	Italy	604
18	Cambodia	586
19	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	582
20	Netherlands	566
21	Turkey	565
22	India	477
23	United Kingdom	474
24	United States	446
25	Thailand	405
26	Philippines	383
27	Germany	382
28	Vietnam	314
29	Malaysia	304
30	Denmark	299
31	Man, Isle of	297
32	Belize	261
33	Gibraltar	216
34	Georgia	209
35	Sweden	194
36	Ukraine	193
37	Canada	171
38	Korea, North	171
39	Spain	167
40	Comoros	144
41	France	141
42	Netherlands Antilles	138
43	Brazil	135
44	Bermuda	133
45	Iran	131
46	Honduras	126
47	Cayman Islands	124
48	Portugal	117
49	Sierra Leone	113
50	Saint Kitts and Nevis	104
51	Taiwan	102
52	Syria	96
53	Finland	92
54	Azerbaijan	86
55	Egypt	77
56	Croatia	75
57	Tuvalu	74
58	Mongolia	73
59	Barbados	71
60	Bulgaria	71
61	Belgium	68
62	Monaco	64
63	Mexico	60
64	United Arab Emirates	60
65	Saudi Arabia	59
66	Venezuela	59
67	Nigeria	55
68	Slovakia	54
69	Dominica	53
70	Australia	52
71	Vanuatu	51
72	Lithuania	50
73	Chile	48
74	Argentina	47
75	Luxembourg	45
76	Bangladesh	41
77	Kuwait	38
78	Lebanon	35
79	Morocco	35
80	Algeria	35
81	Burma	33
82	Ecuador	33
83	Estonia	33
84	Switzerland	32
85	Jordan	30
86	Ireland	27
87	Slovenia	26
88	Bolivia	25
89	Albania	24
90	Sri Lanka	24
91	Papua New Guinea	24
92	Paraguay	22
93	Latvia	22
94	Maldives	22
95	Qatar	20
96	Romania	19
97	Israel	18
98	Libya	17
99	Cook Islands	16
100	Faroe Islands	16
101	Colombia	15
102	Uruguay	14
103	Tonga	14
104	Pakistan	14
105	Iraq	13
106	Jamaica	13
107	French Polynesia	13
108	Cuba	12
109	Poland	11
110	New Zealand	11
111	Ethiopia	10
112	Trinidad and Tobago	9
113	Tanzania	9
114	Madagascar	9
115	Moldova	8
116	Brunei	8
117	Wallis and Futuna	8
118	Cape Verde	8
119	Tunisia	8
120	Turkmenistan	8
121	Fiji	8
122	Sao Tome and Principe	7
123	Austria	7
124	Bahrain	7
125	Guyana	7
126	Kiribati	7
127	Seychelles	6
128	Peru	6
129	Kazakhstan	5
130	Mauritius	5
131	Angola	5
132	Eritrea	5
133	Gambia, The	5
134	Montenegro	4
135	Yemen	4
136	Puerto Rico	3
137	Sudan	3
138	Ghana	3
139	Micronesia, Federated States of	3
140	Greenland	2
141	Gabon	2
142	South Africa	2
143	Togo	2
144	Iceland	2
145	Mozambique	2
146	New Caledonia	2
147	Oman	2
148	Costa Rica	1
149	Laos	1
150	Kenya	1
151	Congo, Republic of the	1
152	Turks and Caicos Islands	1
153	East Timor	1
154	Samoa	1
155	Namibia	1
156	Djibouti	1
157	Dominican Republic	1
158	Somalia	1
159	Suriname	1
160	Czech Republic	1
161	Equatorial Guinea	1
162	Congo, Democratic Republic of the	1
163	Cameroon	1

Definition: Merchant marine may be defined as all ships engaged in the carriage of goods; or all commercial vessels (as opposed to all nonmilitary ships), which excludes tugs, fishing vessels, offshore oil rigs, etc. This entry contains information in four fields - total, ships by type, foreign-owned, and registered in other countries.
Total includes the number of ships (1,000 GRT or over), total DWT for those ships, and total GRT for those ships. DWT or dead weight tonnage is the total weight of cargo, plus bunkers, stores, etc., that a ship can carry when immersed to the appropriate load line. GRT or gross register tonnage is a figure obtained by measuring the entire sheltered volume of a ship available for cargo and passengers and converting it to tons on the basis of 100 cubic feet per ton; there is no stable relationship between GRT and DWT.
Ships by type includes a listing of barge carriers, bulk cargo ships, cargo ships, chemical tankers, combination bulk carriers, combination ore/oil carriers, container ships, liquefied gas tankers, livestock carriers, multifunctional large-load carriers, petroleum tankers, passenger ships, passenger/cargo ships, railcar carriers, refrigerated cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off cargo ships, short-sea passenger ships, specialized tankers, and vehicle carriers.
Foreign-owned are ships that fly the flag of one country but belong to owners in another.
Registered in other countries are ships that belong to owners in one country but fly the flag of another.

Source: CIA World Factbook - Unless otherwise noted, information in this page is accurate as of January 1, 2009