GDP of European countries in 2021

With a Gross Domestic Product of over 3.57 trillion Euros, the German economy was by far the largest in Europe in 2021. The similar-sized economies of the United Kingdom and France were the second and third largest economies in Europe during this year, followed by Italy and Spain. The smallest economy in this statistic is that of the small Balkan nation of Montenegro, which had a GDP of 4.9 billion Euros. In this year, the combined GDP of the 27 member states that compose the European Union amounted to approximately 14.45 trillion Euros.

The Celtic Tiger

The Republic of Ireland was the fastest growing economy in Europe in 2021, after reporting an annual growth rate of 13.7 percent. Croatia, Greece, and the United Kingdom also reported high rates of growth in this year, with every country in Europe reporting some degree of growth. By contrast, almost every country in the European Union shrank in 2020. Looking ahead to 2022, Malta is expected to have the fastest economic growth in Europe, with a forecasted annual growth rate of six percent, followed by Spain at 5.6 percent, and Poland at 5.5 percent.

The big five

Germany’s economy has consistently had the largest economy in Europe since 1980, even before the reunification of West and East Germany. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has had mixed fortunes during the same time period and had a smaller economy than Italy in the late 1980s. The UK also suffered more than the other major economies during the recession of the late 2000s, meaning the French economy was the second largest on the continent for some time afterward. The Spanish economy was continually the fifth-largest in Europe in this 38-year period, and from 2004 onwards, has been worth more than one trillion Euros.