EU exports of services to countries outside the bloc rose to €1,579 billion in 2024, up 9.7% from 2023.
Large enterprises — defined as companies with 250 or more employees — accounted for 41.7% of the EU’s extra-EU services exports in 2024, Eurostat reported in a release on Friday.
Small enterprises with up to 49 employees made up 11.8% of exports, while medium-sized firms with 50 to 249 employees accounted for 9.0%.
A further 37.4% of exported services came from enterprises of unknown size.
In nine EU countries, large enterprises made up more than half of services exports to non-EU countries, with the biggest shares recorded in Denmark (71.7%), Finland (71.2%), Germany (69.1%) and Slovakia (65.0%).
Small enterprises provided more than half of extra-EU services exports in Malta (78.6%), Estonia (61.4%) and Luxembourg (56.8%).
Information and communication firms were the biggest exporters
Companies primarily operating in information and communication accounted for 22.9% of EU services exports to non-EU countries, worth €362.0 billion, Eurostat reported.
Manufacturing firms accounted for 15.8% (€249.3 billion), while transportation and storage made up 15.0% (€236.2 billion).
The figures come from Eurostat’s “services trade by enterprise characteristics” dataset, which tracks services exports by factors including company size and main economic activity.
