Three Fifths of EU Exports Never Leave the EU
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 19 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2025
- Last updated
- 14 August 2026
Key estimates
- 61.0% of the goods exported by EU Member States in 2025 went to other Member States.
- Czechia sends 78.8% of its goods exports to other Member States and Slovakia 78.3%.
- Cyprus sends 27.6% and Ireland 33.5% — the only two Member States below 40%.
- Only three Member States send less than half their goods exports inside the Union.
- Germany, France and Italy all sit between 51% and 56%, close to the point where the two markets are equal.
What the single market absorbs
When a Member State reports its exports, most of what it counts is sold to another Member State. Across the Union in 2025 that share was 61.0% of goods exports by value.
The single market is therefore not one destination among several for European producers. For most of them it is the destination, and the rest of the world is the smaller half of their business.
Where the dependence is deepest
Czechia sends 78.8% of its goods exports to other Member States, Slovakia 78.3%, Hungary 75.1% and Poland 74.8%. Luxembourg records the highest share of all at 83.1%.
The central European group is the clearest pattern in the ranking. These are economies built into the manufacturing supply chains of their western neighbours — a Slovak component becomes part of a German product — and the share reflects that integration rather than a preference for nearby markets.
Estonia at 74.9% and Portugal at 72.3% sit in the same band for different reasons, which is a reminder that the ranking has more than one cause.
The two economies that face outward
Cyprus records 27.6% and Ireland 33.5%. They are the only Member States below 40%, and the distance between Ireland and the next lowest is substantial: Slovenia, third from bottom, records 49.2%.
Ireland's position follows from what it exports. Its goods trade is dominated by pharmaceutical and medical products manufactured by firms whose principal market is the United States, so its export destinations look unlike those of an economy of similar size and location.
Only three Member States — Cyprus, Ireland and Slovenia — send less than half their goods exports inside the single market.
The large economies sit near the middle
Germany records 55.9%, France 53.7% and Italy 51.3%.
All three sit close to the line where the internal and external markets are of equal size, and all three are below the EU figure of 61.0%. The Union's biggest exporters are the ones least concentrated on the Union itself, and the smaller manufacturing economies are the ones most exposed to it.
That asymmetry matters for how a disruption to the single market would be felt. A Czech or Slovak manufacturer has four fifths of its export business inside it; a German one has slightly more than half.
Share of goods exports going to other Member States, 2025
| Country | % of goods exports | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Luxembourg | 83.1 | +22.1 |
| Czechia | 78.8 | +17.8 |
| Slovakia | 78.3 | +17.3 |
| European Unionaggregate | 61.0 | — |
| Slovenia | 49.2 | −11.8 |
| Ireland | 33.5 | −27.5 |
| Cyprus | 27.6 | −33.4 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- Goods only, not services
- This dataset covers trade in goods. Services exports, which for several Member States are larger than goods exports, follow a different geography and are not included here.
- Destination is where goods are shipped
- Trade statistics record the country a shipment is sent to, which need not be where the product is finally consumed. Goods entering the Union through one Member State and moving on are attributed differently from goods sold directly, which affects the figures for the large port economies in particular.
- Exports are counted at gross value
- A product assembled from imported components counts at its full value on export. In closely integrated supply chains the same value can be recorded several times as it crosses borders, which inflates intra-EU flows relative to extra-EU ones.
- A single year
- Trade patterns shift with exchange rates, energy prices and demand in individual partner markets. A 2025 reading describes that year rather than a fixed structure.
Frequently asked questions
- How much EU trade is with other EU countries?
- 61.0% of the goods EU Member States exported in 2025 went to other Member States. The single market absorbs roughly three fifths of the Union's goods exports by value.
- Which EU country trades most within the single market?
- Luxembourg at 83.1% of goods exports, followed by Czechia at 78.8% and Slovakia at 78.3%. The central European manufacturing economies are the most integrated into the internal market.
- Which EU country trades least within the single market?
- Cyprus at 27.6% and Ireland at 33.5%, the only two Member States below 40%. Ireland's exports are concentrated in pharmaceutical and medical products whose principal market is outside the Union.
- Do the largest EU economies depend most on the single market?
- No, the opposite. Germany at 55.9%, France at 53.7% and Italy at 51.3% all send a smaller share of their goods exports to other Member States than the EU average of 61.0%. The smaller manufacturing economies are the more exposed ones.
Methodological note
Eurostat publishes trade in goods by Member State split between partners inside and outside the Union. This study uses total goods exports by value for 2025, with the partner dimension taken at both EU27 and extra-EU27.
The share reported here is intra-EU exports divided by the sum of intra-EU and extra-EU exports, computed by Silver Data Lab for each Member State and for the EU aggregate. The counts of Member States below 50% and below 40% are derived from the same calculation.
Values are for 2025, the most recent year with complete coverage of the 27 Member States at the extraction date.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Intra and Extra-EU trade by Member State and by product group
ext_lt_intratrd
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · indic_et=MIO_EXP_VAL · sitc06=TOTAL · partner=EU27_2020, EXT_EU27_2020 · time=2025
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-15
- Source last updated:
- 2026-08-14
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