How much of the United Kingdom’s trade passes through the Strait of Gibraltar?

Estimated value of its trade with each partner that crosses the chokepoint; the percentage is the share of all its trade through the chokepoint, not of the pair’s trade.

1. United Kingdom–Italy$26.8 billion · 22%
2. United Kingdom–Turkey$22.2 billion · 18.3%
3. United Kingdom–China$12.2 billion · 10%
4. United Kingdom–Slovakia$7.1 billion · 5.9%
5. United Kingdom–Hungary$5.6 billion · 4.6%
6. United Kingdom–Romania$5 billion · 4.1%
7. United Kingdom–Austria$4.8 billion · 4%
8. United Kingdom–Saudi Arabia$3.6 billion · 2.9%
9. United Kingdom–Egypt$3.4 billion · 2.8%
10. United Kingdom–Libya$2.9 billion · 2.4%

The products with the highest estimated value in 2024, with their share of the total through the chokepoint.

1. Cars$16.3 billion · 13.5%
2. Crude petroleum$5.2 billion · 4.3%
3. Refined petroleum$4.7 billion · 3.9%
4. Trucks$4.2 billion · 3.5%
5. Auto parts$4 billion · 3.3%
6. Cables and wire$2.2 billion · 1.8%
7. Ferrous scrap$1.9 billion · 1.5%
8. Diesel engines$1.8 billion · 1.5%
9. Spirits$1.8 billion · 1.5%
10. Furniture$1.4 billion · 1.2%

• United Kingdom–Italy: +11,027 nautical miles, ≈ 33 days more at 14 knots, via the Cape of Good Hope, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal
• United Kingdom–Turkey: +9,384 nautical miles, ≈ 28 days more at 14 knots, via the Cape of Good Hope, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the Suez Canal and the Dardanelles

Estimated sailing detour, without costs, waiting or port capacity.

Felixstowe (33%) and Southampton (67%)

Each port with the weight it receives from the country’s trade, based on where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest.

• See Strait of Gibraltar
• the United Kingdom trade

Other chokepoints it uses

• Cape of Good Hope · 21%
• Strait of Malacca and Singapore · 17%
• Strait of Dover · 10%

Sources and licenses

• CEPII BACI · Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
• World Bank, Global Shipping Traffic Density · CC BY 4.0 (route network derived by this site)
• World Port Index (NGA) · Public domain (US Government work)
• Natural Earth · Public domain
• Kummu et al., gridded GDP · CC BY 4.0 (split between ports done by this site)

Methodology

We estimate the value crossing each chokepoint from BACI trade that travels by sea according to our mode heuristic, split between each country’s ports by where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest, and routed over our own sea network. It is an estimate, not a count of ships. It covers 99.9% of seaborne trade. The approach follows Verschuur, Lumma and Hall (Nature Communications, 2025). Data up to 2024.