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.

In 2025, Luxembourg was the country with the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Of the 20 listed countries, 13 are in Europe and five are in Asia, alongside the U.S. and Australia. There are no African or Latin American countries among the top 20. Correlation with high living standards While GDP is a useful indicator for measuring the size or strength of an economy, GDP per capita is much more reflective of living standards. For example, when compared to life expectancy or indices such as the Human Development Index or the World Happiness Report, there is a strong overlap - 14 of the 20 countries on this list are also ranked among the 20 happiest countries in 2024, and all 20 have "very high" HDIs. Misleading metrics? GDP per capita figures, however, can be misleading, and to paint a fuller picture of a country's living standards then one must look at multiple metrics. GDP per capita figures can be skewed by inequalities in wealth distribution, and in countries such as those in the Middle East, a relatively large share of the population lives in poverty while a smaller number live affluent lifestyles.

In 2023, China was the country with the highest trade surplus, with approximately ****** billion U.S. dollars. The leading trade nations Typically a trade surplus indicates a sign of economic success and a trade deficit indicates an economic weakness. However, if that were true, then the top four, China, Germany, Russia and Ireland, would be considered the best performing countries in the world. However, this would mean that the United States, Great Britain, India and France would be among the weakest nations considering that they are four countries with the highest trade deficit. In fact, they are leading industrial nations. While China is known for producing and exporting products at a competitive price, it has undervalued its exchange rate in order to promote exports. However, China is now working to reduce its reliance on exports even though they continue to export large and increasing quantities of goods. In the case of Germany, the value of the euro may not be high enough, however growth concerning the value of exports has slowed over the past few years. In contrast, the value of the dollar in the United States may be too high, favoring imports as opposed to exports.

This statistic depicts the crude birth rate (per 1,000 population) in the European Union and the United Kingdom in 2022. The crude birth rate was highest in Ireland with **** births per thousand women, while Italy had the lowest birth rate with *** births per 1,000 women.