GDP down by 0.2% and employment up by 0.1% in the euro area

GDP growth in the euro area and the EU

In the first quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted GDP decreased by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.1% in the EU, compared with the previous quarter, according to an estimate published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the fourth quarter of 2025, GDP had increased by 0.2% in both areas.

GDP growth rates over the previous quarter

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.7% in the EU in the first quarter of 2026, after +1.2% in the euro area and +1.4% in the EU in the previous quarter.

GDP growth rates over the same quarter of the previous year

During the first quarter of 2026, GDP in the United States increased by 0.4% compared to the previous quarter (after +0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2025). Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, GDP increased by 2.6% (after +2.0% in the previous quarter).

GDP growth by Member State

In the first quarter of 2026, Denmark (+1.9%) recorded the highest increase compared to the previous quarter, followed by Estonia and Malta (both +1.1%). Declines were recorded in Ireland (-12.1%), Lithuania (-0.3%), Sweden (-0.2%) and France (-0.1%).

Contributions to GDP growth

In the first quarter of 2026, the contribution to GDP growth to the previous quarter from:

household final consumption expenditure was positive for both the euro area and the EU (+0.1 percentage points – pp for both),
government final consumption expenditure was positive for both the euro area and the EU (+0.1 pp for both),
gross fixed capital formation was negative for both the euro area and the EU (-0.1 pp for both),
changes in inventories was negative for the euro area (-0.1 pp) and negligible for the EU, and
exports less imports was negative for both the euro area (-0.3 pp) and the EU (-0.2 pp).

Employment in the euro area and the EU

Based on seasonally adjusted figures, Eurostat estimates that in the first quarter of 2026, 221.2 million people were employed in the EU, of which 176.3 million were in the euro area.

The number of employed persons increased by 0.1% in the euro area and remained stable in the EU, compared with the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2025, employment had increased by 0.2% in both areas.

Growth of employment in persons over the previous quarter

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment increased by 0.5% in both the euro area and the EU in the first quarter of 2026, after +0.7% in the euro area and +0.6% in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Growth of employment in persons over the same quarter of the previous year

Hours worked decreased by 0.2% in both the euro area and the EU in the first quarter of 2026, compared with the previous quarter. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, hours worked increased by 0.4% in both the euro area and the EU.

These data provide a picture of labour input consistent with the output and income measure of national accounts.

Employment growth by Member State

In the first quarter of 2026, Lithuania (+1.8%), Malta (+1.0%) and Estonia (+0.9%) recorded the highest increase of employment in persons compared to the previous quarter. The highest declines of employment were recorded in Romania (-1.0%), Ireland (-0.8%) and Portugal (-0.4%).

Tables

Growth rates of GDP in volume (based on seasonally adjusted* data)
	Percentage change compared with the previous quarter				Percentage change compared with the same quarter of the previous year
	2025Q2	2025Q3	2025Q4	2026Q1	2025Q2	2025Q3	2025Q4	2026Q1
0.1	0.3	0.2	-0.2	1.6	1.4	1.2	0.3
0.1	0.3	0.2	-0.2	1.6	1.4	1.2	0.3
0.2	0.4	0.2	-0.1	1.7	1.6	1.4	0.7
0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.8
0.8	0.7	0.8	0.7	3.3	3.1	2.9	3.1
0.4	0.8	0.7	0.2	2.6	2.8	2.7	2.2
1.1	2.4	0.5	1.9	1.9	3.9	3.2	5.9
-0.2	0.0	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3
0.8	0.3	0.3	1.1	0.7	1.0	1.2	2.4
-1.0	-0.2	-4.2	-12.1	18.0	11.1	2.9	-16.8
0.4	0.6	0.7	0.2	1.7	2.1	2.3	2.0
0.7	0.6	0.8	0.6	2.9	2.7	2.6	2.7
0.3	0.4	0.2	-0.1	0.8	0.8	1.1	0.9
0.7	0.5	1.2	0.0	3.5	2.9	3.5	2.4
0.0	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.9	0.8
0.7	0.8	1.2	0.2	3.7	3.6	4.3	3.0
0.4	0.8	0.7	0.6	1.7	2.3	2.6	2.5
0.7	0.3	1.9	-0.3	3.2	2.2	3.3	2.6
0.5	1.2	0.0	0.0	-0.5	3.2	2.1	1.6
0.6	0.1	0.2	0.8	0.4	0.9	0.7	1.7
1.1	0.9	1.1	1.1	2.3	3.6	4.9	4.3
0.3	0.5	0.4	0.1	1.6	1.7	1.8	1.2
0.1	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.9	1.3	1.1	0.9
0.8	1.1	1.0	0.6	2.9	4.1	3.7	3.5
0.7	0.6	0.9	0.0	1.7	2.2	1.9	2.3
0.9	0.0	-1.9	0.0	2.1	1.4	-1.4	-1.1
1.0	1.0	0.4	0.7	0.9	1.8	1.6	3.1
0.2	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.7	0.9	0.8	0.9
-0.2	0.0	0.3	0.9	0.0	-0.2	0.1	1.1
1.1	0.4	0.8	-0.2	2.7	2.3	2.0	2.0
-0.9	1.2	-0.8	3.7	-0.7	1.1	2.5	3.1
1.0	1.3	-0.6	0.4	0.2	2.3	2.0	2.0
0.1	-0.4	0.2	0.7	1.6	0.7	0.7	0.6
0.9	1.1	0.1	0.4	2.1	2.3	2.0	2.6

GDP and expenditure components seasonally adjusted, chain-linked volumes
		Percentage change compared with the previous quarter		Percentage change compared with the same quarter of the previous year
		Euro area	EU	Euro area	EU
0.1	0.2	1.6	1.7
0.3	0.4	1.4	1.6
0.2	0.2	1.2	1.4
-0.2	-0.1	0.3	0.7
0.3	0.3	1.7	1.9
0.2	0.2	1.3	1.5
0.4	0.5	1.3	1.5
0.2	0.2	1.1	1.3
0.4	0.5	1.2	1.4
0.7	0.7	1.3	1.5
0.6	0.7	1.5	1.6
0.5	0.4	2.3	2.4
-1.4	-1.1	3.6	3.2
1.2	1.3	3.3	3.2
0.8	1.0	3.3	3.3
-0.3	-0.3	0.3	0.8
-0.7	-0.4	0.8	1.2
0.7	0.8	2.9	3.2
-0.6	-0.4	2.1	2.5
-0.2	0.2	-0.9	0.2
-0.2	0.1	2.7	3.0
1.4	1.3	3.8	3.9
0.3	0.3	3.8	3.8
0.5	0.7	1.9	2.5

Contribution of expenditure components to change of GDP seasonally adjusted, chain-linked volumes
		Contribution in percentage points to GDP change compared with the previous quarter		Contribution in percentage points to GDP change compared with the same quarter of the previous year
		Euro area	EU	Euro area	EU
0.1	0.2	0.9	1.0
0.1	0.1	0.7	0.8
0.2	0.3	0.7	0.8
0.1	0.1	0.6	0.7
0.1	0.1	0.3	0.3
0.1	0.2	0.3	0.3
0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4
0.1	0.1	0.5	0.5
-0.3	-0.2	0.8	0.7
0.3	0.3	0.7	0.7
0.2	0.2	0.7	0.7
-0.1	-0.1	0.1	0.2
0.5	0.4	0.5	0.5
0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1
0.1	-0.1	0.2	0.0
-0.1	0.0	0.5	0.4
-0.4	-0.2	0.4	0.6
0.3	0.4	1.4	1.6
-0.3	-0.2	1.0	1.2
-0.1	0.1	-0.4	0.1
0.1	-0.1	-1.2	-1.4
-0.6	-0.6	-1.7	-1.8
-0.1	-0.1	-1.7	-1.7
-0.2	-0.3	-0.9	-1.1

Growth rates of employment in persons*
	Percentage change compared with the previous quarter				Percentage change compared with the same quarter of the previous year
	2025Q2	2025Q3	2025Q4	2026Q1	2025Q2	2025Q3	2025Q4	2026Q1
0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.5
0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.5
0.1	0.1	0.2	0.0	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5
0.1	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.4
0.6	0.4	0.5	0.2	2.6	2.3	2.5	1.2
0.5	0.2	0.0	0.4	1.0	1.1	1.1	1.1
0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	1.0	1.3	1.2	1.1
0.0	-0.1	-0.1	-0.1	0.0	0.0	-0.2	-0.3
0.7	0.6	-1.8	0.9	-0.9	1.0	-1.1	0.3
-0.2	0.0	1.1	-0.8	2.1	0.9	1.9	0.0
-0.1	0.1	0.4	0.1	0.8	1.1	0.9	0.4
0.7	0.7	0.8	0.3	3.0	2.7	2.6	2.6
0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.0
-0.8	1.6	0.2	0.2	0.0	1.6	1.8	1.2
0.0	0.3	0.4	0.4	1.1	0.6	1.2	1.2
0.7	0.5	0.8	0.1	1.8	1.4	2.0	2.0
0.0	0.6	0.6	0.1	-1.3	-0.5	1.3	1.3
-1.3	1.0	-2.3	1.8	-1.3	-0.3	-1.9	-0.3
0.3	0.5	0.4	0.3	1.0	1.4	1.5	1.6
0.1	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.3	0.5	0.6	0.5
1.1	0.9	1.1	1.0	4.1	3.9	4.3	4.2
0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.6	0.4	0.3	-0.1
0.0	-0.1	0.0	-0.1	0.0	-0.1	0.0	-0.2
0.5	0.2	0.4	0.2	0.0	0.7	0.7	1.3
0.7	0.9	0.5	-0.4	2.3	2.7	2.8	1.7
-0.4	-1.1	1.2	-1.0	-4.4	-2.5	-2.5	-1.2
0.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	-0.5	-0.4	-0.2	0.4
0.1	-0.1	0.0	-0.1	0.0	-0.2	-0.2	-0.1
-0.1	0.0	0.3	-0.2	-0.7	-0.7	0.3	0.1
0.1	0.0	0.1	0.1	-0.2	-0.1	0.3	0.4
0.3	0.3	0.1	-0.4	1.1	1.3	0.9	0.0
0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6
0.0	-0.1	0.0	0.2	0.6	0.4	0.1	0.2

Notes for users

Revisions

Flash estimates of employment and GDP growth were published in the Euro indicators release issued on 13 May 2026. They were based on a more limited data set than the one used for the present release and additionally, on preliminary estimates that have now been revised by some Member States. Revisions for the last quarter are highlighted in bold in the table below:

To the previous quarter (Q/Q-1)				To the previous year (Q/Q-4)
Previous		Current		Previous		Current
Euro area	EU	Euro area	EU	Euro area	EU	Euro area	EU
0.1	0.2	-0.2	-0.1	0.8	1.0	0.3	0.7
0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5

With this release, euro area and EU employment and GDP figures for earlier quarters are also revised.

All estimates presented in this release may be revised with the database update scheduled for 20 July 2026.

Revisions of quarterly GDP estimates are continuously monitored. Further information can be found on Eurostat website.

Release schedule

This news release presents estimates for euro area and EU GDP and employment based on national accounts transmissions from all Member States due after t+2 months.

A further estimation is done at around t+110 days after some countries transmit updated estimates.

To increase the timeliness of key indicators, Eurostat also publishes flash estimates for GDP (after around 30 and 45 days) and employment (after around 45 days). The flash estimates are based on estimates provided by most EU Member States on a voluntary basis.

Methods and definitions

European quarterly national accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). They include key policy indicators on GDP and employment.

Gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices measures the production activity of resident producer units. Growth rates are based on chain-linked volumes.

Employment covers employees and self-employed working in resident production units (domestic concept). Employment flash estimates are limited to total employment in persons, but regular estimates also cover hours worked and industry breakdowns.

Geographical information

Up to 31 December 2025, the euro area included Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland (EA20). From 1 January 2026, the euro area also includes Bulgaria (EA21).
The aggregate data series commented on in this Euro indicator release refer to the official composition of the euro area in the most recent quarter for which data are available. Thus, Euro indicator releases with data up to the fourth quarter of 2025 comment on EA20 series, while releases with data for the first quarter of 2026 onwards will comment on EA21 series.

European Union: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden (EU27).