Here's How Much More High-Speed Rail China Has Than Every Other Country

While some U.S. automakers seem ready to battle the scourge of Chinese cars, the competition for high-speed rail (HSR) doesn't get the same kind of attention. When we tried to build HSR in California, for example, taxpayers ended up reimbursing consultants for their trips to the bars.  

Meanwhile, China has been on a major railroad spending spree for much of the 21st century. And this has included putting down more than 31,000 miles of high-speed rail track since 2008. According to the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, that's more than the rest of the world combined. At this stage, per the same source, China's HSR network is "accessible" by 97% of the country's cities with more than 500,000 people.

Now, the exact distance covered by the world's high-speed rail lines today is hard to pin down. But in its 2024 High-Speed Rail Atlas, the International Union of Railways counted about 40,390 miles — with China alone accounting for 28,204 miles at the time. That means you could add up the total amount of high-speed track in all the other countries and still end up short of China's total. Another way to look at it is that China has around 70% of the world's high-speed rail track by mileage. The country isn't done, either. Expansions that opened in December 2025 include a new 195-mile section of the route connecting Shanghai, Chongqing, and Chengdu, and another 80 miles in Zhejiang Province. 

As for the country in second place, well, it may not be the one you think. Sure, many people associate Japan with high-speed rail. A shinkansen-style train even got top billing in the flick "Bullet Train," reminding us that trains are an integral part of every truly great movie. (FYI: The book on which the movie is based, written by Kotaro Isaka, is available in English and well worth a read.)

Getting back on track here, the point is that Japan is actually No. 3 on the list of countries with the most operational HSR trackage. It's Spain in the No. 2 spot, with 2,481 miles of track compared with Japan's 1,955 miles. Moreover, if you take the European Union as a whole, the total track distance reaches more than 7,550 miles. As for the U.S., we've got 457 miles — despite having the world's longest total railroad length when you further consider traditional train tracks. The U.S. leads China here 136,729 miles to 98,798.

However, China does trail when you compare the "density" of the world's high-speed train networks. As explained by World Population Review, you get this by dividing the total length of high-speed track by each country's area. The leaders in this measure are South Korea (about 74 feet per square mile) and Japan (about 69 feet). To put America's HSR network into context, the U.S. had the absolute lowest network density in 2024, with about 7 inches – yes, inches — for every square mile of area.