EU Services Exports Reach €1,579 Billion in 2024
Services sold to non-EU countries rose 9.7% from 2023, led by large enterprises and information and communication firms.
Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Professional Services
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The European Union exported €1,579 billion of services to countries outside the bloc in 2024, a 9.7% increase compared with 2023. Large enterprises with 250 or more employees accounted for 41.7% of those exports.
Why it matters
The figures show how much of the EU's trade in services depends on large firms, while small and medium-sized enterprises together accounted for about one-fifth of exports. For the international business community, the data offer a benchmark for the scale and concentration of European service trade.
Enterprises whose primary operations were information and communication generated 22.9% of EU services exports, or €362.0 billion, while manufacturing-led enterprises accounted for 15.8%, or €249.3 billion. The data do not indicate how much of the unknown-size share would shift these sector figures if it were classified.
The players
Eurostat
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union, responsible for publishing harmonized trade and economic data for member states.
The details
The statistics come from the STEC framework, which classifies exporters by size and by primary economic activity. Large firms dominated in Denmark, Finland, Germany and Slovakia, where they accounted for more than half of services exports outside the EU, while small firms led in Malta, Estonia and Luxembourg.
Timeline
2023: Baseline year against which the 9.7% increase in EU services exports is measured.
2024: EU services exports to non-EU countries reached €1,579 billion.
Market Landscape
The STEC series from Eurostat lets analysts track which firm sizes and sectors drive EU services trade, rather than relying on aggregate totals alone. The 2024 results show large enterprises and information and communication firms continuing to carry most of the bloc's exports to non-EU markets.
For businesses in the professional services sector, the figures indicate that large firms account for the largest share of export revenue, which affects how smaller firms may compete for foreign contracts. Readers working with EU-based service providers may see these export patterns reflected in the scale and pricing of cross-border offerings.
The takeaway
Size matters in services trade: the EU's exports depend heavily on large enterprises, so smaller firms looking to expand abroad may benefit from tracking how bigger competitors enter non-EU markets.
Further reading
For related coverage of how service firms compete abroad, see the Professional Services section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by European Commission.
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