The tax-to-GDP ratio in the European Union rose to 40.7% in 2025, up from 40.2% a year earlier, according to Eurostat figures published on 29 October 2026. The euro area moved faster, with its ratio climbing from 40.7% to 41.3%. Taken together, taxes and net social contributions brought in €7,686 billion across the Union, an increase of €401 billion in a single year.

Eurostat defines the tax-to-GDP ratio as taxes plus net social contributions expressed as a share of gross domestic product, which makes it the standard yardstick for comparing how much of national output flows through the public purse. A rise does not by itself mean governments raised rates. Revenue can outpace GDP when wages grow, when employment holds up, or when consumption and profits expand faster than the wider economy.

The spread between countries remains wide. France recorded the highest ratio in 2025 at 46.0%, followed by Belgium at 44.7%, Denmark at 44.3% and Austria at 43.9%. At the other end, Ireland stood at 22.7%, far below Romania at 29.3%, Malta at 30.3% and Bulgaria at 30.6%. Ireland’s figure is partly a statistical artefact, because the GDP of a small economy hosting large multinational groups is inflated relative to the tax base that residents actually bear. That caveat matters whenever the tax-to-GDP ratio is used to rank national tax effort.

Movement within the year tells a more interesting story than the league table. The ratio increased in 19 member states and fell in eight. Germany posted the largest rise, from 40.3% to 41.4%, ahead of Spain, which moved from 37.2% to 38.1%, and Malta, which went from 29.3% to 30.3%. Sweden slipped from 41.8% to 41.2% and Latvia from 34.9% to 34.2%, the two largest declines in the data.

Germany’s increase matters beyond Berlin. The country loosened its borrowing rules in 2025 to fund defence and infrastructure, and a stronger revenue base shapes how comfortably the Commission can read national fiscal plans under the reformed EU economic governance framework. Spain’s climb of almost a full percentage point points the same way, since a southern economy growing faster than its peers is collecting more from the same tax code.

The gap between the euro area and the Union average deserves a second look. With a euro area ratio of 41.3% against 40.7% for the EU as a whole, the countries sharing the single currency collect more of their output in tax on average than those outside it. For the Commission, which is negotiating the next long-term budget and debating new own resources, that baseline suggests that heavily taxed member states have limited room to absorb additional levies without political resistance.

For readers tracking Eurostat data on taxation in 2026, the lesson is that the tax-to-GDP ratio measures the weight of the state in the economy rather than the quality of a tax system. The 2025 outcome, with the tax-to-GDP ratio rising in 19 countries, shows revenue gaining ground on growth almost everywhere, while the distance between France and Ireland shows how differently European governments finance their promises.