How Many Ships Pass Through the Strait of Hormuz?
Daily and annual transit numbers, today's live vessel count, and what the traffic statistics reveal about the world's busiest energy corridor.
The headline numbers
On a typical day, well over 100 vessel transits pass through the Strait of Hormuz when all ship types are counted — merchant traffic, regional ferries and fishing fleets included. Large commercial transits average several dozen daily, of which 30–40 are tankers: crude carriers, product tankers, LNG and LPG ships. Annually that compounds to tens of thousands of transits carrying roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day and a fifth of the world's LNG.
Ships in the strait right now
The number physically inside the strait at any moment is smaller than the daily transit count — a transit takes 8 to 12 hours, so traffic spreads across the day. The live tracker's statistics dashboard shows the current total, split eastbound and westbound, plus the fleet waiting at anchor off Fujairah, which routinely numbers in the dozens.
How traffic varies
Traffic is remarkably steady — energy demand doesn't take weekends — but patterns exist. Loading schedules cluster tanker departures; container services run to weekly cycles; monsoon-season weather in the Arabian Sea nudges routings; and Ramadan and holiday periods thin regional small-craft traffic. The hourly and daily charts on the analytics panel make these rhythms visible.
Counting method matters
Published figures differ because sources count differently: some count only ships over a tonnage threshold, some only tankers, some count port calls in the Gulf rather than strait transits. AIS-based counting — what this tracker does — captures every broadcasting vessel but misses ships running dark. Treat any single number as an estimate with a defined method behind it.
Explore the live statistics
For today's actual counts, open the statistics dashboard. For context on what the numbers mean when they change, see the strait status page.