The River With Ten Passports
From a spring in Germany's Black Forest to a delta on the Black Sea, the Danube passes through or along ten countries, more than any other river. Its basin takes in nineteen.
countries along one river. The Danube runs about 2,857 km, past four national capitals, the most of any river. Rain falling in a further nine countries also drains into it, across a basin of 801,463 km², about a tenth of Europe.
A river that is also a border
For long stretches the Danube doesn't run through a country. It runs between two, and the channel is the border line.
- 01Germanyflows through
- 02Austriaflows through
- 03Slovakiathrough · border with AT & HU
- 04Hungaryborder with SK, then through
- 05Croatiaborder with Serbia
- 06Serbiaborder, then through
- 07Romaniaborder with RS, BG, UA
- 08Bulgariaborder with Romania
- 09Moldova≈480 m of bank
- 10Ukraineborder · delta's Chilia arm
Listed in downstream order. Moldova's entire frontage is a single bank at Giurgiulești, and Ukraine holds the north side of the delta.
Kilometre zero is at the sea
Skippers count the Danube backwards. River-kilometre 0 is at Sulina on the Black Sea, so every port is addressed by its distance from the delta.
Positions approximate, rounded to the kilometre marker (Danube Commission convention). The gradient darkens as tributaries add water downstream; mean discharge at the mouth is ≈6,500 m³/s.
Romania holds 29% of the watershed
The river passes ten countries, but the land that drains into it is shared very unevenly. Romania alone holds nearly three times Hungary's share.
Share of the 801,463 km² basin, %. Not shown: Italy, Poland, Albania and North Macedonia (<0.1% each). Source: ICPDR, Danube Basin Analysis 2005.
81 million people, one drain
Population inside the basin follows area loosely. Germany and Austria hold small slices of land but many people.
Million residents within the Danube basin, 2005 (ICPDR). Serbia and Montenegro were reported jointly at the time and are omitted here.
Moldova's one stretch of riverbank
Moldova is landlocked. It still counts as a Danube state because of a sliver of bank where the Prut meets the river.
≈480 mof Danube bank, between Romania and Ukraine. It is enough for one port, Giurgiulești, which is Moldova's only port that sea-going ships can reach.
Some reports give 450 m. The strip was secured in a 1999 border deal with Ukraine.
Dammed, dredged and protected
Almost all of the Danube has been engineered. The delta at its mouth is one of Europe's best-protected wetlands.
Follow the line, then the edge
- The capitals cluster. Vienna and Bratislava sit less than 60 km apart on the same water: two capitals within sight of the same river traffic.
- The river bends south at Budapest. At the Danube Bend it turns from east to south and crosses the Pannonian plain before cutting east through the Carpathians at the Iron Gates.
- The dashed edge is wider than the river's path. Tributaries (Inn, Drava, Sava, Tisza, Prut) pull in water from nine countries the main stem never touches.
- Look for the ochre dot. The smallest Danube country has less river than a city block is long.