Since 2020
Covid-19 crisis
Europe spent the pandemic buying time with money: wage support, test and vaccination programmes, and a €800bn recovery facility financed with joint debt. Five years on the crisis still shows up every year as interest on that debt, as care postponed and never caught up, and as several million people whose working capacity never fully returned.
Accrued this year
€104,958,130,002
€4,832 /sec
Per citizen
€233.76
€340 per year
Per household
€532.78
€774 per year
Cost timeline
Modelled yearly cost across the EU, 2015–2026.
Figures are EU-wide and divided equally across 449 million residents.
Direct costs
€59.5 bn/yrMoney that leaves a public budget or an invoice.
- Interest and repayment on pandemic recovery debt€34.0 bn
NextGenerationEU plus national emergency borrowing
- Care backlog: postponed treatment and surgery€19.0 bn
- Vaccination, surveillance and pandemic preparedness€6.5 bn
Indirect costs
€93.0 bn/yrPrices, productivity and welfare effects citizens absorb.
- Long covid: care and disability costs€26.0 bn
- Lost labour supply from long-term illness€31.0 bn
- Learning loss in the pandemic school cohorts€24.0 bn
- Mental health and excess care demand€12.0 bn