Russia is the largest country in Europe, and also the largest in the world, its total size amounting to 17 million square kilometers (km2). It should be noted, however, that over three quarters of Russia is located in Asia, and the Ural mountains are often viewed as the meeting point of the two continents in Russia; nonetheless, European Russia is still significantly larger than any other European country. Ukraine, the second largest country on the continent, is only 603,000 km2, making it about 28 times smaller than its eastern neighbor, or seven times smaller than the European part of Russia. France is the third largest country in Europe, but the largest in the European Union. The Vatican City, often referred to as the Holy Sea, is both the smallest country in Europe and in the world, at just one km2. Population Russia is also the most populous country in Europe. It has around 144 million inhabitants across the country; in this case, around three quarters of the population live in the European part, which still gives it the largest population in Europe. Despite having the largest population, Russia is a very sparsely populated country due to its size and the harsh winters. Germany is the second most populous country in Europe, with 83 million inhabitants, while the Vatican has the smallest population. Worldwide, India and China are the most populous countries, with approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants each. Cities Moscow in Russia is ranked as the most populous city in Europe with around 13 million inhabitants, although figures vary, due to differences in the methodologies used by countries and sources. Some statistics include Istanbul in Turkey* as the largest city in Europe with its 15 million inhabitants, bit it has been excluded here as most of the country and parts of the city is located in Asia. Worldwide, Tokyo is the most populous city, with Jakarta the second largest and Delhi the third.

It is estimated that Russia had the largest population among Central and Eastern European countries, with ***** million people in 2024. The following largest countries in terms of population size were Poland, with **** million, and Ukraine, with **** million.

Russia demonstrated the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in Eurasia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in 2024, at approximately *** trillion U.S. dollars. To compare, Kazakhstan's GDP was measured at around *** billion U.S. dollars in the same year. Tajikistan had the lowest GDP in Eurasia, at ** billion U.S. dollars. Commonwealth of Independent States The CIS is an organization of post-Soviet states founded after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991. Its official members are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Energy in the CIS Several countries in the CIS are among the leading energy producers and exporters, such as Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. In 2023, the CIS countries exported around *** million barrels of oil daily. The region's overall primary energy consumption exceeded ** exajoules in 2023, which was close to the figure recorded for the Middle East.

In 2024, Russia had the largest population among European countries at ***** million people. The next largest countries in terms of their population size were Turkey at **** million, Germany at **** million, the United Kingdom at **** million, and France at **** million. Europe is also home to some of the world’s smallest countries, such as the microstates of Liechtenstein and San Marino, with populations of ****** and ****** respectively. Europe’s largest economies Germany was Europe’s largest economy in 2023, with a Gross Domestic Product of around *** trillion Euros, while the UK and France are the second and third largest economies, at *** trillion and *** trillion euros respectively. Prior to the mid-2000s, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, Italy, had an economy that was of a similar sized to France and the UK, before diverging growth patterns saw the UK and France become far larger economies than Italy. Moscow and Istanbul the megacities of Europe Two cities on the eastern borders of Europe were Europe’s largest in 2023. The Turkish city of Istanbul, with a population of 15.8 million, and the Russian capital, Moscow, with a population of 12.7 million. Istanbul is arguably the world’s most famous transcontinental city with territory in both Europe and Asia and has been an important center for commerce and culture for over 2,000 years. Paris was the third largest European city with a population of ** million, with London being the fourth largest at *** million.

During the post-war economic boom, between the Second World War and the 1970s' recession, virtually all areas of Europe experienced significant economic growth. While this period is known as the "Golden Age of Capitalism" in Western Europe, communist countries in Eastern Europe (with socialist economic systems) generally experienced higher GDP growth rates in the 1950s and 1960s. Although most of these economies entered the period at a much less-developed stage than the likes of Britain, France, or West Germany, the Soviet model proved to be an economic success in these decades. Controlling the means of production The transition to communism across Eastern Europe saw the nationalization of most industries, as governments took control of the means of production in their respective countries. As much of Eastern Europe entered the period with relatively-low levels of industrialization compared to the west, this meant that governments could dictate the development of their manufacturing and retail industries. By the end of the 1960s, state-owned endeavors in Eastern Europe were responsible for over 95 percent of national income. Problems did arise, however, when states attempted to take control of the agricultural sector, as many of the families who owned the land were unwilling to part with it. Agriculture proved to be the only major industry not mostly owned by the state during Eastern Europe's communist era; in the long term, agriculture suffered due to the lack of government investment in such state-run economic systems. Variations There is a correlation between the sides taken during the Second World War and the speed of economic growth in each decade; the Allied nations of Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia all experienced faster economic growth in the 1950s; whereas the Axis nations of Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania saw faster growth in the 1960s. East Germany was the exception to this rule, as its economy was much more developed than other former-Axis powers. The speed of recovery in these countries was the largest contributor to variations in growth rates, although regional variations in governance did influence development in later years (particularly in Yugoslavia).

In 1950, the agriculture and forestry sector employed the largest amount of people in every country in Eastern Europe, except for East Germany. The industrial sector would eventually emerge as the largest contributor to the economy by the late 1960s, though agriculture would remain the largest employment sector in most countries.

According to the government artificial intelligence (AI) readiness index rankings, Estonia is the highest ranked Eastern European country in 2022, with an index score of 70.14. This means that Estonia is considered the country best situated within Eastern Europe to implement AI within public services, from healthcare to education to transportation. Other noteworthy countries with high indexes within Eastern Europe were Czechia, Poland, and Lithuania coming in at second, third, and fourth respectively.

In 2025, according to data provided by StartupBlink the top country for startups in Central and Eastern Europe was Estonia, with a total score of *****, followed by Lithuania.

In 2023, Ukraine had the fastest growing population in Europe. As a result of Ukrainian citizens who had fled Russia's invasion of the eastern European country in 2022 returning to the country in 2023, Ukraine's population grew by 3.68 percent compared to 2022. Excluding this special case, the European countries which saw the greatest population growth in 2023 were Luxembourg, Norway, and Ireland. Overall, Europe's population declined by 0.09 percent in 2022, with this varying by region from a 0.31 percent decline in eastern Europe to an increase of 0.33 percent in northern Europe. All of the countries which saw the largest declines in their population in 2023 were central and eastern European countries which had hosted large numbers of Ukrainian refugees in 2022. Moldova, one of Ukraine's closest neighbours, saw its population decline by 3.6 percent, while Poland's population declined by 2.2 percent, and Slovakia's by 1.8 percent.

In 2024, Czechia and Poland had the lowest unemployment rate among Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, at 2.6 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. On the other hand, the highest unemployment rate was recorded in Estonia and Lithuania. The average unemployment rate in all European Union member states amounted to six percent in this period.

In May 2024, Russia ranked as the biggest Facebook market compared to other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with over 70.6 million users. Poland was second with almost 25 million users.

With a Gross Domestic Product of over 4.18 trillion Euros, the German economy was by far the largest in Europe in 2023. The similarly 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 5.7 billion Euros. In this year, the combined GDP of the 27 member states that compose the European Union amounted to approximately 17.1 trillion Euros. 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 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. The smallest GDP, the highest economic growth in Europe Despite having the smallerst GDP of Europe, Montenegro emerged as the fastest growing economy in the continent, achieving an impressive annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, surpassing Turkey's growth rate of 4 percent. Overall,this Balkan nation has shown a remarkable economic recovery since the 2010 financial crisis, with its GDP projected to grow by 28.71 percent between 2024 and 2029. Contributing to this positive trend are successful tourism seasons in recent years, along with increased private consumption and rising imports. Europe's economic stagnation Malta, Albania, Iceland, and Croatia were among the countries reporting some of the highest growth rates this year. However, Europe's overall performance reflected a general slowdown in growth compared to the trend seen in 2021, during the post-pandemic recovery. Estonia experienced the sharpest negative growth in 2023, with its economy shrinking by 2.3% compared to 2022, primarily due to the negative impact of sanctions placed on its large neighbor, Russia. Other nations, including Sweden, Germany, and Finland, also recorded slight negative growth.

Estonia had the highest internet penetration rate in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), at over 93 percent in 2023. Latvia ranked second, followed by Russia. The lowest rate in the region was observed in Moldova, at 63.5 percent in 2022.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the total number of independent nation states in Europe has almost doubled, from 24 countries in 1900 to 45 today. At the beginning of this period, much of Central and Eastern Europe was split between the empires of Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Ottomans, and Russia. The dissolution of these empires in the aftermath of the First World War resulted in the restoration or creation of several independent states, such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. During the interwar period, there were generally 33 countries in Europe, before the Second World War saw Germany and the Soviet Union annex most of the territories between them, and control of these regions swapped between the two during the remainder of the war. Germany also invaded several Western European countries, and there were fewer than 20 independent countries in Europe at the peak of the war. Post-war Europe The post-war period then saw some major restructuring of Europe's borders, and most of the defeated Axis governments fell under Allied influence. However, there was then a split between the leading Allied Powers, and the continent was divided between the east and west. The communist, eastern countries, known as the Eastern Bloc, mostly fell under the influence of the Soviet Union; whereas the West remained largely democratic and was under American influence (but to a lesser extent). Both sides of Europe prospered throughout the post-war period, but the Eastern Bloc economies eventually collapsed or stagnated, and independence movements gained more momentum. Communist regimes across Europe began collapsing in 1989, before the Soviet Union's dissolution in late 1991. Soviet dissolution resulted in the formation of 15 separate countries, seven of which were in Europe, while Yugoslavia's eventually resulted in seven new states. Post-communist separation While the borders of Western Europe remained fairly stable throughout the entire period, Eastern Europe's changed greatly. A large part of this can be attributed to cultural and historical differences between different ethnic groups in the region, who were often forced to share their lands under various empires or world powers; the fall of communism provided an opportunity for these groups to separate, but it was not always a peaceful process. This was most notable in the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, where some states achieved independence through violence, while others descended into it thereafter. Communism's collapse also resulted in the expansion of European integration, and many eastern countries joined the European Union in the early-2000s; this resulted in a mass exodus of economic migrants from the former-Eastern Bloc, which has had a significant demographic and economic impact on both sides of the continent. Generally, political relations across the east have improved greatly in recent years, and prosperity is growing. However, there has been a noticeable rise in authoritarian leadership across Eastern Europe, and Russian interference in foreign politics is growing; it remains to be seen what impact this will have on the stability of the region.

This statistic looks at the countries with the largest shopping center floor space in Eastern Europe in 2014, by country. Russia significantly has the highest floor space, with 17.7 million square meters being dedicated to shopping centers.

Russia had the largest population among countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Central Asia, at 143.8 million in 2023. To compare, Poland had over 39 million inhabitants. The least populated country in the region was Montenegro.

Migration in Europe in 2024 marks a return to normality after the extreme disruptions experienced in 2022. While in 2022 ******* saw the largest negative net migration balance, with almost * million of its citizens fleeing the eastern European country in the aftermath of Russia's invasion, in 2024 it is in fact the country with the largest positive net migration balance. Over **** million Ukrainians have returned to their home country from abroad, leading Poland, Romania, and Hungary to have large net migration deficits, as they were key recipient countries for Ukrainians in 2022. The other countries which experienced large positive net migration balances in 2023 are all in Western Europe, as the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain all remain popular destinations for migrants.

Estonia and Lithuania had the highest Digital Quality of Life index in Central and Eastern Europe in 2023, at 0.72 and 0.7 points on a scale from zero to one, respectively. In comparison, Bosnia and Herzegovina scored the lowest among the presented CEE countries. The index ranks the quality of digital wellbeing in a country.

Among Central and Eastern European countries, Russia recorded the highest number of data centers in 2025, totaling ** units. At the same time, ** data centers operated in Poland and a further ** in Romania. Russia records the highest data center revenues Considering the high number of data centers operating in the country, it is no surprise that Russia recorded the highest market revenue in the CEE in 2024, at over *** billion U.S. dollars. In the same year, Poland’s data center market revenue totaled approximately *** billion U.S. dollars, while Czechia followed in the ranking with a 1.4-billion-dollar revenue. The ranking is not expected to change in the near future, with Russia’s data center market revenue forecast to peak at *** billion U.S. dollars in 2029. Which Polish city has the most data centers? Poland’s capital, Warsaw, houses the highest number of data centers in the country, their number reaching ** in 2024. Katowitze followed in the ranking, with ** data centers, while Krakow came third.

Around ** percent of Hungarian online shoppers made cross-border purchases as of 2023, the highest share among Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The second-highest share of cross-border buyers among e-commerce customers was recorded in Poland at ** percent.