The EU and its Member States
Founded: in 1951 after the Second World War by six countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands).
Current Member States: 27 countries.
Applicants for future membership: 9 candidate countries and 1 potential candidate.
Institutional setup: the EU has a unique setup of institutions, bodies and agencies who all work for the common interests of the EU and European people. 7 European institutions, 9 EU bodies and over 30 decentralised agencies with specific roles are spread across the EU.
Elections: European elections are held every five years to elect new Members of the European Parliament.
People, size and open borders
Population: more than 448 million inhabitants who account for 5.6 % of the world’s population.
Population evolution: experts estimate that the EU population will grow steadily until the year 2026, after which it is projected to fall back to 420 million by 2100.
Multicultural societies: around 41 million EU residents are foreign citizens. Almost 14 million of them are citizens of EU Member States other than the one in which they reside. The rest are citizens of non-EU countries. On average, 3.1% of the people who live in an EU country are from another EU country, and 6.1% have the nationality of a non-EU country.
Geographical size: 4 million km². Germany has the EU’s largest population and France is the largest EU country in terms of area. Malta is the smallest EU country both in terms of inhabitants and surface area.
Urbanisation: 39% of the EU population lives in a city, 36% in towns and suburbs, and 25% in rural areas.
Open borders: the Schengen area allows people to move around without border checks since 1985. It underpins the EU’s free movement principle, thanks to which every EU citizen can travel, work and live in any EU country without special formalities. All EU Member States, except for Cyprus and Ireland, are members of the Schengen area. Bulgaria and Romania joined most recently, in March 2024. 4 non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) are also part of Schengen.
Sources: Eurostat – 2023 data for population, population projection, surface area, citizenship of the population, world population, urban and rural population, 2022 data for share in world trade
Economy, trade and government finances
Single market: the European Union operates as a single market made up of the 27 EU countries and, with certain exceptions, 4 non-EU countries. This means goods, services, capital and persons can circulate freely, without technical, legal and bureaucratic barriers.
Single currency: launched in 1999, the euro is the official currency of 20 EU countries. These countries are known as the euro area. The euro has advanced European integration by enabling people in the euro area to take advantage of the single market. Most EU countries export between 50% and 80% of their goods to other countries in the EU.
GDP: as one of the world’s biggest economies, GDP or the total value of all goods and services produced in the EU is €17 trillion. Germany has the largest share, followed by France and Italy. Services account for 72% of the EU’s GDP, and industry for almost all of the rest.
Trade: the EU is the world’s largest exporter of manufactured goods and services. It accounts for around 14% of the world's trade in goods.
Trading partners: the United States is the largest destination for EU exports of goods, while China is the largest origin for goods imports. The EU’s leading trade partners for services are the United States and the United Kingdom.
EU budget: the EU has its own budget to finance EU priorities and big projects that most EU countries could not finance on their own – either because of the project’s size or its cross-border nature. The current long-term budget runs from 2021 until 2027 and amounts to around €2 trillion.
Debt: the general government deficit across the EU is equivalent to 3.5% of GDP. Consolidated gross debt in the EU is 82% of GDP, down from its 2020 peak of 90% during the pandemic. Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Belgium have the highest debt, all with ratios of debt to GDP above 100%. Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Estonia have the lowest ratios.
Source: Eurostat – 2023 data for GDP, sectors, intra-EU trade, trading partners for goods, trading partners for services, government deficit, consolidated gross debt, 2022 data for share in world trade
Energy and climate
Climate targets: on its way to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the EU is a trailblazer in fighting climate change and greening its economy. It has committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
Emissions: over the last decade, the greenhouse gas emissions from the EU economy per employed person decreased by 26%.
Fossil fuels: 70% of all energy in the EU is still produced from coal, oil and gas. The EU is working to reduce its dependency on other countries for fuel imports which currently stands at 63%.
Renewable energy: 23% of the energy consumed in the EU is already renewable, and this share is constantly growing. Renewable energy sources are now the leading source for electricity generation. Sweden leads among EU countries, with nearly two-thirds of its energy consumption derived from renewable sources, followed by Finland, Latvia and Denmark. Ireland, Malta, Belgium and Luxembourg have the lowest proportions of renewables.
Source: Eurostat - 2022 data for fossil fuels, energy, renewable energy, energy dependence, and greenhouse gas emissions
Quality of life, jobs and equality
Life expectancy: almost 79 years for men, 84 years for women.
Health: of the people living in the EU aged 16 or older, 68% say they feel in good or very good health.
Demographic change: population ageing has been observed across much of Europe in recent decades. This will have serious implications on pension funds, government revenues and the provision of services such as health and social care. The number of working-age people in the EU relative to the number of older persons fell from 3.8 in 2002 to 2.8 by 2022. This ratio will continue to decrease.
Unemployment rate: 6.1%. More than twice as many young people aged 15-24 are unemployed (14.5%).
Employers: the service sector is by far the biggest employer in the EU, with a share of 74%. The rest of the workforce is spread between the industry, construction, agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors.
Gender equality: while the EU has made progress in gender equality over the last decades, on average women in the EU still earn 12.7% less than men. When working, men generally occupy higher positions than women. For example, women account for slightly more than a third (35%) of managers in the EU. The share of female managers does not reach 50% in any EU country but is higher than 40% in Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Bulgaria and Finland. Cyprus, Luxembourg and Croatia have the fewest female managers.
Inflation: 6.4% (in 2023). Prices of food, drinks and alcohol have increased the most in past years. After a spike in 2022 and 2023, the cost of transport, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels has now gone down significantly.
Poverty risk: 94.6 million people in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Over one in five Europeans living in a household with dependent children is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. 31% of Europeans living in private households are also unable to cope with an unexpected financial expense. The poverty risk is highest in Romania and Bulgaria, and lowest in Czechia and Slovenia.
Source: Eurostat – 2023 data for life expectancy, health perception, old age dependency ratio, unemployment, employment sectors, poverty and social exclusion, household facing unexpected financial expense, inflation, inflation by category, gender pay gap, managers, 2022 data for consumption per household
Education, languages and tourism
Culture and multilingualism: the EU has a rich cultural and linguistic diversity. The languages spoken in EU countries are an essential part of its cultural heritage. This is why the EU supports multilingualism and has 24 official languages.
Language learning: in school, pupils are encouraged to learn new languages from an early age. This promotes contact with people across borders and makes studying abroad easier. 49% of upper secondary pupils in the EU study two or more foreign languages.
University graduates: over 4 million graduates every year. The most common fields of study are: business, administration and law; engineering, manufacturing and construction; and health and welfare.
Student exchanges: since 1987, student exchanges in the EU are organised through the Erasmus+ programme. In the first year, 3,200 students from 11 European countries participated. Since then, Erasmus+ has allowed 15 million people to live and study in 34 countries in the EU and beyond.
Tourism: the EU is the world’s leading tourist destination, accounting for 60% of the world’s international visitors. Germany, Italy, France and Spain are among most visited destinations in the world, with tourists spending over 430 million nights annually in each of these four countries. EU residents also make nearly 1.1 billion tourism trips in a year for personal or business purposes, either inside their own country or to another EU country. This free movement is facilitated by the EU’s open borders.
Source: Eurostat – 2023 data for pupils and languages studied, university graduates, fields of university studies, tourist nights, tourism, trips by Europeans, 2022 data for studying abroad