The city of Paris in France had an estimated gross domestic product of 757.6 billion Euros in 2021, the most of any European city. Paris was followed by the spanish capital, Madrid, which had a GDP of 237.5 billion Euros, and the Irish capital, Dublin at 230 billion Euros. Milan, in the prosperous north of Italy, had a GDP of 228.4 billion Euros, 65 billion euros larger than the Italian capital Rome, and was the largest non-capital city in terms of GDP in Europe. The engine of Europe Among European countries, Germany had by far the largest economy, with a gross domestic product of over 4.18 trillion Euros. The United Kingdom or France have been Europe's second largest economy since the 1980s, depending on the year, with forecasts suggesting France will overtake the UK going into the 2020s. Germany however, has been the biggest European economy for some time, with five cities (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Frankfurt) among the 15 largest European cities by GDP. Europe's largest cities In 2023, Moscow was the largest european city, with a population of nearly 12.7 million. Paris was the largest city in western Europe, with a population of over 11 million, while London was Europe's third-largest city at 9.6 million inhabitants.

The European Union is comprised of 27 member states who share the European Single Market, a common trade area which ensures the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. As of 2024, the largest economies in the EU were Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, with these countries making up the vast majority of the EU's almost 17 trillion Euro GDP. The relatively small island member states of Cyprus and Malta come in at the bottom of the list, with GDPs of around 23 and 33 billion Euros respectively.

Germany, the UK, and France had the largest commercial real estate markets in Europe in 2024, amounting to almost **** of the European market. The market size is based on the value of high-quality real estate as a percentage of each country’s GDP. In Germany, the market size of commercial real estate was about *** trillion U.S. dollars.  Investment in commercial real estate Although the United Kingdom had a smaller market size than Germany, it recorded a higher commercial real estate investment volume in 2023. Due to the unfavorable economic climate, transaction activity declined markedly that year, affecting the whole region. Many countries, such as Germany, Sweden, and Italy, saw investment plummet by approximately ** percent. Most popular European cities among real estate investors Industry experts consider a broad range of factors when allocating capital to real estate assets. Transport connectivity and a city’s economic performance, however, stood out as most important, according to a 2023 survey. Unsurprisingly, the capital cities of the UK, Spain, and France ranked as the European cities with the highest real estate prospects in 2025.

London was the most attractive financial center in Western Europe as of September 2024. According to five broad areas of competitiveness that the ranking was built on (business environment, human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development, and reputation), London received *** points. Frankfurt ranked second, with a rating of ***. According to the Global Power City Index (GPCI), London was also the most attractive city worldwide for its economy, research and development, cultural interaction, livability, environment, and accessibility. Financial employment in the UK In 2022, the value added in the finance and insurance services sector in the United Kingdom as a percentage of total GDP was one of the largest in Europe. However, total employment in the financial services sector overall decreased since 2008. The mean weekly wage of full-time employees in the financial and insurance sector also dropped and never recovered from a sharp decrease in 2018. Largest European financial institutions In 2023, HSBC topped the list of the largest European banks in terms of total assets. With more than *** trillion U.S. dollars, the UK-based giant ranked before BNP Paribas, the largest banking institution in France.

In 2019, the growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) in Poland was up 4.45 percent from the year before. In 2018, Poland’s GDP reached over 588.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Poland’s economy seems stable

Just over half of the country’s GDP comes from its services sector , which includes a growing real estate industry. Interestingly, Poland is one of the few countries that didn’t experience a recession during the 2008 global financial crisis, and has experienced growth in GDP for the past 26 years. Its unemployment rate, which dropped dramatically to 3.67 percent in 2018, has consistently been lower than the EU average. As such, most of Poland’s potential work force is employed.

Poland’s population at work

Within Poland’s working population, most work in the services sector. A little over half of the population works in city centers; urbanization in Poland is about five percent more than the global average. Poland’s capital city of Warsaw has about 1.7 million residents.

In 2015, Dubai was the city with the highest number of tourists staying at least one night per capita. That same year, international overnight visitor spending in Dubai reached 28.5 billion US dollars. The city, which is the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, was also one of the most expensive holiday destinations in the world in 2018. In 2016, 14.87 million people visited Dubai from abroad.

Europe and Asia: top destinations

According to the source, most of the 20 tourist cities with the highest number of visitor arrivals per capita were Asian or European cities. After Dubai, Amsterdam and Prague were the second and third cities with the greatest number of tourists spending at least one night per capita. With respectively, 2.7 and 2.5 visitors per capita, the two European cities were followed by another one: London. Singapore, ranked fifth with 2.1 visitors per capita, was the first Asian city in the list. Thus, New-York the first North American city of this ranking was 17th. It appears that Europe remains one of the most popular tourist destinations. Asia was also a very attractive destinations for international visitors with Hong-Kong being the leading city destination in 2017.

Focus on tourism in Europe

Since the nineties, the number of international tourist arrivals in Europe keeps increasing. France is the European country with the largest number of international visitors’ arrivals, while Spain and Italy are also two of the leading tourist destinations on the continent. Travel and tourism have an important contribution to GDP in Europe, reaching 781.6 billion US dollar and 2018 and expected to attain 991.4 billion in 2028.

This ranking displays the results of the worldwide Made-In-Country Index 2017, a survey conducted to show how positively products "made in..." are perceived in various countries all over the world. During this survey, 77 percent of respondents from Germany perceived products made in Switzerland as "slightly positive" or "very positive". The survey indicates that Swiss products have the strongest reputation in Germany, followed by EU products.

At **** U.S. dollars, Switzerland has the most expensive Big Macs in the world, according to the January 2025 Big Mac index. Concurrently, the cost of a Big Mac was **** dollars in the U.S., and **** U.S. dollars in the Euro area. What is the Big Mac index? The Big Mac index, published by The Economist, is a novel way of measuring whether the market exchange rates for different countries’ currencies are overvalued or undervalued. It does this by measuring each currency against a common standard – the Big Mac hamburger sold by McDonald’s restaurants all over the world. Twice a year the Economist converts the average national price of a Big Mac into U.S. dollars using the exchange rate at that point in time. As a Big Mac is a completely standardized product across the world, the argument goes that it should have the same relative cost in every country. Differences in the cost of a Big Mac expressed as U.S. dollars therefore reflect differences in the purchasing power of each currency. Is the Big Mac index a good measure of purchasing power parity? Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the idea that items should cost the same in different countries, based on the exchange rate at that time. This relationship does not hold in practice. Factors like tax rates, wage regulations, whether components need to be imported, and the level of market competition all contribute to price variations between countries. The Big Mac index does measure this basic point – that one U.S. dollar can buy more in some countries than others. There are more accurate ways to measure differences in PPP though, which convert a larger range of products into their dollar price. Adjusting for PPP can have a massive effect on how we understand a country’s economy. The country with the largest GDP adjusted for PPP is China, but when looking at the unadjusted GDP of different countries, the U.S. has the largest economy.