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Abstract The knowledge of urban logistics in European cities is fragmented and data is not harmonised due to lack of systematic methodological approaches, along with the reluctance of targeted operators to share information in a highly competitive market. A recent survey targeted on urban logistics has been commissioned by the European Commission, within the “Study on new Mobility Patterns in European Cities”, to collect data and make available indicators related to economic, environmental, and usage aspects of goods distribution and other logistics movements in EU cities. The survey was developed in 21 EU greater cities of 12 Member States plus UK, among 1590 logistics operators, between April 2021 and February 2022. Additionally, a systematic review of the main previous studies on urban logistics in the targeted cities was achieved in order to have a methodological appraisal and quantitative references to be used as background information in the selected cities, so as to validate the results of the survey and analyse any discrepancies found in the data collected by the survey with statistics from previous studies. This review revealed extreme differences in the methodologies and identified limitations in the comparisons of data collection and analysis, especially concerning the definition of indicators and consistency of targets. The survey represents a novel achievement and a credible baseline towards understanding urban logistics dimensions and benchmarking relevant indicators. As such, the outcome of the survey can serve as baseline for future data collection and analysis with the goal to develop sustainable urban logistics policies.