Combined population (2026)
478.49
million, 35 countries
+0.75 million vs 2025
Largest
83.47
Germany (million)
Smallest
0.04
Liechtenstein (million)
Countries ranked
36
with a published figure

Data

Population of European Countries (2026) — source data. Eurostat.
# Country million people Change vs 2025
1 Germany 83.5 -0.1
2 France 69.1 +0.2
3 Italy 58.9 unchanged
4 Spain 49.6 +0.5
5 Poland 36.3 -0.2
6 Romania 19 unchanged
7 Netherlands 18.1 +0.1
8 Belgium 12 +0.1
9 Portugal 11.4 unchanged
10 Czechia 10.9 unchanged
11 Sweden 10.6 unchanged
12 Greece 10.4 unchanged
13 Hungary 9.5 -0.1
14 Austria 9.2 unchanged
15 Switzerland 9.1 +0.1
16 Serbia 6.5 unchanged
17 Bulgaria 6.4 unchanged
18 Denmark 6 unchanged
19 Finland 5.7 unchanged
20 Norway 5.6 unchanged
21 Ireland 5.5 +0.1
22 Slovakia 5.4 unchanged
23 Georgia 3.9 +0.2
24 Croatia 3.9 unchanged
25 Lithuania 2.9 unchanged
26 Albania 2.3 unchanged
27 Slovenia 2.1 unchanged
28 Latvia 1.9 unchanged
29 North Macedonia 1.8 unchanged
30 Estonia 1.4 unchanged
31 Cyprus 1 unchanged
32 Luxembourg 0.7 unchanged
33 Montenegro 0.6 unchanged
34 Malta 0.6 unchanged
35 Iceland 0.4 unchanged
36 Liechtenstein 0 unchanged

About this Dataset

Populations here are counted on 1 January 2026, the standard Eurostat reference date. Germany leads at 83.47 million, followed by France (69.11 million) and Italy (58.94 million). The five largest countries together account for roughly half of the 478.49 million people in the charted panel.

Every country in the top ten now depends on net immigration to avoid shrinking. Deaths exceed births in most of them, and have done for years.

The interesting movement is at the margins rather than the top. Spain has climbed to fourth place at 49.59 million after several years of the fastest absolute growth in western Europe, driven almost entirely by arrivals. Poland sits fifth with 36.33 million, and the direction there has reversed: Poland is now losing people year on year. The smallest entries (Liechtenstein, Iceland and Malta) are included because they report on the same harmonised basis, not because their totals are comparable in any practical sense.

Every row is the figure published for 2026; no value is carried over from an adjacent year to fill a gap. Turkey has not published a 2026 figure and is left out rather than carried forward from an older year. The chart tracks a fixed panel of 35 countries: those reporting in every year from 2005. The line therefore moves because the countries moved, not because the sample changed. Georgia reports on this collection but revised its population base in the latest year, so it is excluded from the charted panel to keep the aggregate comparable over time.

Country pages: Germany · France · Italy · Spain · Poland · Romania · Netherlands · Belgium · Portugal · Czechia · Sweden · Greece · Hungary · Austria · Switzerland · Serbia · Bulgaria · Denmark · Finland · Norway · Ireland · Slovakia · Georgia · Croatia · Lithuania · Albania · Slovenia · Latvia · North Macedonia · Estonia · Cyprus · Luxembourg · Montenegro · Malta · Iceland · Liechtenstein

Frequently Asked Questions

Germany, with 83.47 million people on 1 January 2026, ahead of France at 69.11 million and Italy at 58.94 million. Russia is larger than any of them but is not covered by this Eurostat collection; Turkey publishes to Eurostat but had not filed a 1 January 2026 figure when this page was compiled.

The 35-country panel charted here reached 478.49 million, +0.75 million on the year. Growth is entirely a migration story: natural change — births minus deaths — is negative across most of the continent, and the countries still adding people are the ones receiving net inflows. Strip migration out and the aggregate falls.

The clearest declines are concentrated in eastern and south-eastern Europe, where low fertility and sustained emigration compound. The Baltic states, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia have each shed a substantial share of their population since 2000, and Poland and Hungary have turned negative more recently. The year-on-year column in the table shows which direction each country moved in the latest year.