EU Contributors and Beneficiaries Map With 2021 Values

Key points from the map

Nine member states paid more into the EU budget than they received in 2021. Germany was the largest net contributor at +25,572 million euros, followed by France at +12,380 million.
Poland was the largest net beneficiary, receiving 11,910 million euros more than it paid in. Greece (4,278 million) and Hungary (4,206 million) came next.
By our sum of the labels, the nine contributors put in a combined net 56,162 million euros and the 17 labelled beneficiaries received a combined net 45,768 million euros.
Malta was the closest to balanced, at -14 million euros.
The map uses 2021 figures in million euros, credited to Statista and the European Commission.

EU contributors and beneficiaries in text

The map colours each member state blue (net contributor) or red (net beneficiary) and labels it with its net balance. These are all the values printed on it, sorted from the largest contributor to the largest beneficiary.

Rank	Member state	Role in 2021	Net balance, million euros
1	Germany	Net contributor	+25,572
2	France	Net contributor	+12,380
3	Netherlands	Net contributor	+6,929
4	Italy	Net contributor	+3,337
5	Sweden	Net contributor	+2,826
6	Denmark	Net contributor	+1,766
7	Austria	Net contributor	+1,540
8	Finland	Net contributor	+1,109
9	Ireland	Net contributor	+703
10	Malta	Net beneficiary	-14
11	Slovenia	Net beneficiary	-386
12	Estonia	Net beneficiary	-729
13	Latvia	Net beneficiary	-860
14	Slovakia	Net beneficiary	-1,398
15	Lithuania	Net beneficiary	-1,544
16	Bulgaria	Net beneficiary	-1,727
17	Croatia	Net beneficiary	-1,746
18	Spain	Net beneficiary	-1,946
19	Luxembourg	Net beneficiary	-2,020
20	Czechia	Net beneficiary	-2,853
21	Belgium	Net beneficiary	-2,950
22	Portugal	Net beneficiary	-3,132
23	Romania	Net beneficiary	-4,069
24	Hungary	Net beneficiary	-4,206
25	Greece	Net beneficiary	-4,278
26	Poland	Net beneficiary	-11,910

Non-EU countries such as the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Western Balkans are hatched grey with no data. The subtitle reads “Net contributions to the EU budget, by member state (2021, in million euros)” and gives the Statista chart address. A small “made with Map Fast” mark sits at the bottom of the map.

What a net contributor means

A net balance is what a country pays into the EU budget minus what the EU spends in that country. A positive figure means the country paid in more than it got back. A negative figure means EU spending there was larger than its payments.

The money paid in comes mainly from what the EU calls its own resources. These are a share of each country’s gross national income, based on its wealth, customs duties on imports from outside the EU, a small part of the VAT each country collects, and a contribution based on each country’s non-recycled plastic packaging waste [4]. The budget also has other income, such as contributions from non-EU countries to some programmes and fines [4].

Statista notes that these figures cover direct monetary contributions only. It writes that there were nine net contributors in the 2021 budget, down from ten when the UK was still a member, and that the UK had come second with roughly 10 billion euros of net contributions in 2018 [1]. It also cites a Bertelsmann Foundation study suggesting the single market raised average German incomes by over 1,000 euros, above an EU average of 840 euros [1]. That is the study’s estimate, not a budget figure.

Where the official figures live

The European Commission publishes spending and revenue for each member state by year in interactive charts, with data downloads for each long-term budget period [2][3]. The 2021 figures on this map fall in the 2021 to 2027 period [2]. The Commission says these amounts are for presentation only and that formal references should use official budget documents [3]. For a later year, use the Commission’s charts, because balances change each year as payments and spending shift.

Notes on this infographic

One year only. All values are for 2021. Searches for later years will find different balances on the Commission’s charts [2].
Cyprus is not labelled. The map shows 26 labelled member states. Cyprus, also an EU member, has no label or value on the map, so it is missing from the table above.
Creator. The map credits Statista and the European Commission for its data and carries a Map Fast logo, which is a map-making tool. It does not name the person who drew it, and we could not identify them. Statista’s own chart on the same data uses a different design [1].
Hungary. The map labels Hungary at -4,206 million euros, but Statista’s text gives Hungary as 4.1 billion euros [1]. We have kept the map’s label in the table. The difference may come from rounding or a data revision, and we could not check it against the Commission’s download.
Totals. The map does not print totals. The combined figures in the key points are our sums of its labels.

Questions about EU contributors and beneficiaries

Which countries are net contributors to the EU?

On this 2021 map, nine: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Finland and Ireland. Statista gives the same count of nine for the 2021 budget [1].