The biggest countries in Europe

Which are the biggest countries in Europe by area?

Russia is the biggest country in Europe by area, with 17,098,246 km². That is 74.1% of the land of all 45 countries in Europe.

Russia covers 74 percent of the area of the 45 European countries put together, and about three quarters of Russia itself lies in Asia, east of the Ural mountains. Even the European part alone, roughly 4 million km², would still be first. Ukraine is second at 603,550 km² and France third. France is the largest member of the European Union; Sweden, Norway and Finland fill the next places because the Nordic countries are long and thinly populated.

Germany, the most populous EU member, is only seventh by area, and the United Kingdom is 11th. The twenty largest countries take 97 percent of Europe's land; the other 25 share the rest.

Which are the biggest countries in Europe by population?

Russia has the most people in Europe: 143.50 million in the UN's 2025 estimate, or 19.2% of the 745.90 million people who live in these 45 countries.

Russia has 143.5 million people, 1.7 times Germany's 83.5 million. Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy follow in that order, and those four countries hold 38 percent of Europe's population. The United Kingdom and France are within a million people of each other.

Ukraine is seventh with 39.0 million. The UN's estimate for Ukraine was about 44 million in 2020; the drop reflects the people who left the country after the 2022 invasion. Poland is eighth. Belarus, 13th by area, is 19th by population.

Which are the biggest countries in Europe by GDP?

Germany has the biggest economy in Europe. The IMF projects its GDP at $5.45 trillion for 2026, which is 16.9% of the total for Europe.

Germany's economy is 17 percent of Europe's total. Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy are the same top four as for population, in the same order, and Russia, first on the two other lists, is fifth by GDP with $2.66 trillion. The Netherlands, with 18.1 million people, is seventh, and Switzerland with 9.1 million people is eighth. Both produce more per person than any of the large countries.

Poland is ninth and crosses $1 trillion in the 2026 projection. Ireland at tenth is a special case. Its GDP is inflated by the profits that multinational companies book there, and the Irish statistics office publishes a separate "modified GNI" measure that comes out about 40 percent lower. Ukraine, second by area, is 22nd by GDP.

How does the ranking change with the measure?

The top five under each measure, side by side:

Russia is first, first and fifth. Germany is seventh by area, then first and first. The United Kingdom is 11th by area and second on the other two lists. Ukraine, Sweden and Norway are near the top by area and much lower by population or GDP. Eight countries, three ranks each:

How do we count?

We use the UN's regional grouping, with one change: Cyprus counts as Europe because it is an EU member. So Russia is in Europe (all of it, including the part east of the Urals) and Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are in Asia. That gives 45 countries, including Kosovo. Vatican City is not on the map because it publishes no GDP figure.

Area is total area including lakes and rivers, from the UN Statistics Division and the CIA World Factbook. Population is the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2025, taken from the World Bank. GDP is the IMF World Economic Outlook (April 2026) projection for 2026, in current US dollars. We use the same figures on the map, so the boxes there and the tables here agree. More on the data.