EU government debt: four countries account for 71.1%

France, Italy, Germany and Spain owed a combined €11.49 trillion at the end of June 2026. Together they accounted for 71.1% of the sum of national government debts across the EU’s 27 countries. Five years earlier, their share had been slightly larger, even though their debt was lower.

EU Debt Map calculated the shares from Eurostat’s provisional figures released on 21 October. Adding the debt of each country’s whole government sector, including regional and local authorities, gives €16.16 trillion at 30 June 2026. This is outstanding government debt, not private borrowing or a single year’s budget deficit.

Which EU countries owe the most in euros?

France has the largest national government-debt stock in the EU. Italy, Germany and Spain follow. The figures below measure the size of their debts, not their creditors’ holdings.

The other 23 countries account for €4.67 trillion, or 28.9% of the sum. The combined 71.1% share is calculated before rounding; adding the four displayed country percentages gives a slightly different result.

The EU debt overview and country breakdown lets you inspect all 27 amounts and the five-year trend. Its breakdown follows the latest available quarter. This article uses the fixed June 2026 reference date.

A smaller share of a larger stock

The four-country share has edged down over five years. In the second quarter of 2021, their combined debt was €9.33 trillion out of an EU national sum of €12.94 trillion. Their share was then 72.1%.

By the same quarter of 2026, the four countries’ combined debt had risen by about €2.16 trillion, while their share had fallen to 71.1%. That is a decline of roughly one percentage point. The remaining 23 countries consequently account for a slightly larger share than they did five years earlier.

Both endpoints use the same four countries and the same revised Eurostat series. The amounts are nominal: they have not been adjusted for inflation. Exchange-rate movements can also change the euro value of debt in EU countries outside the euro area. A shift in these shares does not establish whether debt has become more affordable.

Why Germany and Italy tell different stories

Germany owed €2.92 trillion and Italy €3.21 trillion. Those amounts are much closer than their debt-to-GDP ratios: 63.4% in Germany and 139.9% in Italy.

A debt-to-GDP ratio divides outstanding government debt by gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced. Eurostat’s quarterly ratio uses GDP over the preceding four quarters. It relates the debt stock to the economy rather than comparing amounts alone.

The EU debt-to-GDP comparison therefore answers a different question from the four-country share. Neither measure by itself is a complete assessment of financial risk. A country’s weight in the European sum tells us how much debt it contributes to that sum, not how difficult it will find repayment.

The sum is not one European borrower

Adding national debts does not create a common treasury responsible for all of them. These are obligations of different governments. They should also be distinguished from borrowing undertaken by the European Commission on the EU’s behalf, including under NextGenerationEU.

There is a further statistical distinction. Eurostat publishes a consolidated EU aggregate of about €15.95 trillion, which accounts for lending between EU governments. That makes it smaller than the €16.16 trillion national sum used here. Our concentration calculation uses the national sum at both dates; substituting the consolidated total would change the question and the percentage.

How does the US figure compare?

A US comparison needs the date, currency and government coverage stated together. The frequently cited federal debt total covers different obligations from the European whole-government figures. Currency conversion cannot remove that difference.

The US Treasury series published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis through FRED records $39.46 trillion of federal debt at the end of June 2026. That includes holdings by federal government accounts. It is not a total of all the separate debts of US states and local governments.

At the ECB’s reference rate for the same day, $1.1394 per euro, that converts to approximately €34.63 trillion. The EU national sum was €16.16 trillion; the four largest national stocks totalled €11.49 trillion. The amounts now share a date and currency, but their government coverage and consolidation still differ.

These figures provide scale, not a ranking of safe borrowing capacity. The separate guide to US and European debt capacity examines why their financing arrangements require more than a comparison of headline amounts.

Follow the country behind the total

A useful next step is to check whether a country’s debt amount and debt ratio are moving in the same direction. A rising euro amount need not be accompanied by a rising ratio if the economy used as the denominator changes too.

Start with the distribution on the EU debt page, then open the country you want to investigate. Keep the quarter in view: the dashboard will move on when new observations arrive, while this calculation remains a comparison of specific dates.