Government debt in the EU countries

Name: Government debt in the EU countries, the end of the second quarter of 2026
Creator: Civitascope
Published: 2026-11-01T15:33:24+00:00
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Topic: Economy and prices

Relative to GDP, government debt in Greece is 5.4 times that of Estonia.

At the end of the second quarter of 2026, the gross debt of all levels of government in the EU as a whole was 82.9% of GDP.

Figures for:: the end of the second quarter of 2026.
Covers:: one day.
New data:: every quarter.
Dataset updated:: 21 October 2026.

Published 1 November 2026, updated 6 November 2026

27 / 27 EU countries ranked

The ranking

At the end of the second quarter of 2026, government debt as a share of GDP was highest in Greece, at 140.8% of GDP, and lowest in Estonia, at 26.1% of GDP.

Government debt as a share of GDP, % of GDP

the end of the second quarter of 2026

050100150% of GDP

EU, 82.9 % of GDP

Rank 1: Greece, 140.8 % of GDP

Rank 2: Italy, 139.9 % of GDP

Rank 3: France, 119.1 % of GDP

Rank 4: Belgium, 110.2 % of GDP

Rank 5: Spain, 101.4 % of GDP

Rank 6: Portugal, 92.5 % of GDP

Rank 7: Finland, 90.2 % of GDP

Rank 8: Austria, 83.6 % of GDP

Rank 9: Hungary, 75.6 % of GDP

Rank 10: Slovenia, 64.7 % of GDP

Rank 11: Poland, 64.5 % of GDP

Rank 12: Germany, 63.4 % of GDP

Rank 13: Slovakia, 60.6 % of GDP

Rank 14: Romania, 59.4 % of GDP

Rank 15: Croatia, 56.2 % of GDP

Rank 16: Cyprus, 48.5 % of GDP

Rank 17: Latvia, 48.0 % of GDP

Rank 18: Malta, 47.0 % of GDP

Rank 19: Czechia, 43.8 % of GDP

Rank 19: Lithuania, 43.8 % of GDP

Rank 21: Netherlands, 43.7 % of GDP

Rank 22: Ireland, 35.3 % of GDP

Rank 22: Sweden, 35.3 % of GDP

Rank 24: Bulgaria, 28.7 % of GDP

Rank 25: Luxembourg, 28.2 % of GDP

Rank 26: Denmark, 27.1 % of GDP

Rank 27: Estonia, 26.1 % of GDP

How to read: bars start at zero. Every country with a value is shown, ranked from highest to lowest.Source: Eurostat, Quarterly government debt (gov_10q_ggdebt).Chart: Civitascope (civitascope.eu) · CC BY 4.0 · Download image · Download data ·

About the data

General government gross debt at the end of the quarter, at nominal (face) value, consolidated within the sector ('Maastricht debt'), by default as a percentage of GDP. The GDP is the sum of the last four quarters.

Eurostat: “'Quarterly government debt' is defined as the total gross debt at nominal value outstanding at the end of each quarter for the general government sector” (source)

Quarterly government finance statistics transmitted by the Member States under Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 (ESA 2010).

How to read these numbers

How it is measured

The EU figure is not the sum of the countries' debts. Loans between EU governments (mainly to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, including through the EFSF) are deducted from it since 2009. The debt of countries outside the euro area is converted into euro at end-of-quarter exchange rates, and their GDP at average rates. So the EU figure can move with exchange rates.

The ratio uses quarterly GDP (the last four quarters). For Bulgaria, Greece and Poland quarterly and annual GDP differ, so the ratio can differ from the annual debt ratio.

Provisional figures

A provisional value (flag p) may still be revised. This concerns every country (the end of the second quarter of 2026) and the EU (the end of the second quarter of 2026).

Sources and data

Eurostat, Quarterly government debt (gov_10q_ggdebt). Data updated 21 October 2026, retrieved 3 November 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

Eurostat metadata · Eurostat methodology

The exact Eurostat API query

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/gov_10q_ggdebt?format=JSON&lang=en&freq=Q&geo=AT&geo=BE&geo=BG&geo=CY&geo=CZ&geo=DE&geo=DK&geo=EE&geo=EL&geo=ES&geo=EU27_2020&geo=FI&geo=FR&geo=HR&geo=HU&geo=IE&geo=IT&geo=LT&geo=LU&geo=LV&geo=MT&geo=NL&geo=PL&geo=PT&geo=RO&geo=SE&geo=SI&geo=SK&na_item=GD&sector=S13&unit=PC_GDP

How every number in this story was computed