Greece reported the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the European Union in the third quarter of last year, of 149.7%, new data from Eurostat has revealed.
Other European countries to report a high debt-to-GDP ratio in the third quarter of the year included Italy (137.8%), France (117.7%), Belgium (107.1%) and Spain (103.2%).
The lowest debt-to-GDP ratios, meanwhile were recorded in Estonia (22.9%), Luxembourg (27.9%), Bulgaria (28.4%) and Denmark (29.7%).
Debt increase
At EU level, debt increased to 82.1% of GDP in the third quarter, up from 81.9% in the previous quarter and 81.3% in the third quarter of the previous year.
The biggest quarter-on-quarter increases were seen in Luxembourg (+2.6 percentage points), Bulgaria (+2.1 percentage points) and France (+1.8 percentage points), while the biggest year-on-year increases were recorded in Romania (+5.5 percentage points), Poland (+5.0 percentage points) and Finland (+4.7 percentage points), Eurostat noted.
Euro area government #debt at 88.5% of GDP in Q3 2025 (compared with 88.2% in Q2 2025) https://t.co/BIhwqR14k9 pic.twitter.com/ri8DEMr7m9
— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) January 22, 2026
Debt composition
In terms of the composition of debt across the EU, debt securities accounted for 83.6%, with loans accounting for 13.9%, currency and deposits accounting for 2.5% and intergovernmental lending, including loans to other EU member states, accounting for 1.4%.
As of the end of the third quarter, general government gross debt in the EU stood at €15.25 trillion, compared to €14.46 trillion in the corresponding period a year earlier.
In the euro area specifically, government debt was €13.85 trillion, equivalent to 88.5% of the GDP of the bloc. Read more here.
