Containers shipped this year
How many containers are shipped each year?
The World Shipping Council reports that an estimated 280 million containers were transported by sea in 2025. That is a yearly flow of shipments, not the number of containers in existence: StatOrigin holds no sourced count of the global container fleet. This counter spreads the 2025 total evenly across the current year, starting from zero on 1 January.
Estimated range: 216,695,789 – 244,359,081 (±6%)
- 280 million Estimate · 2025 · WSC
- 8.87 containers per second, modelled
- Tier B (±6%) Moderate confidence
- +0 Since you opened this page
Putting it in perspective
- Per second
- 8.87
- Per minute
- 532
- Per hour
- 31,941
- Per day
- 766,598
- Still to come this year
- 49,280,914
Counted in containers.
How this number is made
- Algorithm
- Annual flow spread
Evenly distributed across 31,557,600 seconds (365.25 days) of the year.
- Confidence Tier
-
Tier B Moderate confidence
World Shipping Council (WSC) global container port throughput and liner operator schedules.
- Error Band
- ±6%
Modelled range: 216,695,789 to 244,359,081
- Annualized Validation
- ≤ 3.0% tolerance passed
Pace: 280,000,000 containers/yr vs cited reference 280,000,000 containers/yr (exact match)
- Basis
- Estimate for 2025
- Record
- STO-01M2KJ7XCD
- Source
- WSC, World Shipping Council releases Containers Lost at Sea Report: 2026 Update
“25 June 2026 - The World Shipping Council has released its annual Containers Lost at Sea Report, showing that an estimated 1,478 containers were lost at sea in 2025 out of approximately 280 million transported globally.”
- Step 01
Take WSC’s figure for 2025: 280 million (an estimate).
- Step 02
Spread it evenly over a year of 31,557,600 seconds (365.25 days): about 8.87 containers per second.
- Step 03
Count from 00:00 UTC on 1 January of the current year, so the number resets every New Year.
- On screen
- The result of those steps, recomputed four times a second in your browser. Nothing on this page is fetched live from the publisher.
- Why this can't be exact
- Real activity is not spread evenly: it clusters in working hours, weekdays and seasons, so the count runs ahead or behind the true figure at any given moment. It runs at the 2025 pace until a figure for the current year is published. Digits beyond the first two or three are the model ticking, not extra precision.
Frequently asked questions
How many containers are shipped each year?
The World Shipping Council reports that an estimated 280 million containers were transported by sea in 2025. That is a yearly flow of shipments, not the number of containers in existence: StatOrigin holds no sourced count of the global container fleet. This counter spreads the 2025 total evenly across the current year, starting from zero on 1 January.
Which published figure is the counter based on?
The World Shipping Council’s figure for 2025: 280 million containers (an estimate).
How is the live number calculated?
Take WSC’s figure for 2025: 280 million (an estimate). Spread it evenly over a year of 31,557,600 seconds (365.25 days): about 8.87 containers per second. Count from 00:00 UTC on 1 January of the current year, so the number resets every New Year.
How accurate is the counter?
Real activity is not spread evenly: it clusters in working hours, weekdays and seasons, so the count runs ahead or behind the true figure at any given moment. It runs at the 2025 pace until a figure for the current year is published. Digits beyond the first two or three are the model ticking, not extra precision.
Where does the data come from?
The World Shipping Council, “World Shipping Council releases Containers Lost at Sea Report: 2026 Update”. The record quotes the publisher’s own sentence, and nothing on the page is fetched live from the publisher.
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<p><a href="https://statorigin.org/live/containers-shipped">Data: WSC via StatOrigin</a> · CC BY 4.0</p>Cite this counter
A modelled figure: cite the published number it comes from when you can.
StatOrigin. (2026). Containers shipped this year [Live counter, extrapolated from WSC]. Retrieved 28 Oct 2026, from https://statorigin.org/live/containers-shipped