Eurozone facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Euro area

Austria Belgium Croatia Cyprus Finland Estonia France Greece Germany Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Lux. Malta Netherlands Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Andorra Monaco San Marino Vatican Kos Mont.      Eurozone members (20)      Monetary agreement (4)      Unilaterally adopted (2)
Policy of	European Union
Type	Monetary union
Currency	Euro
Established	1 January 1999
Members	20 states  Austria  Belgium  Croatia  Cyprus  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Malta  Netherlands  Portugal  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain Further usage
Governance
Monetary authority	Eurosystem
Political oversight	Eurogroup
Statistics
Area	2,801,552 km2 (1,081,685 sq mi)
Population	349,256,040 (January 2023)
Density	125/km2 (323.7/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	€13.4 trillion €38,470 (per capita) (2022)
Interest rate	3.50%
Inflation	5.5% (June 2023)
Unemployment	6.5% (April 2023)
Trade balance	€310 billion trade surplus

The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 20 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies.

The 20 eurozone members are:

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

The seven non-eurozone members of the EU are Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Czech republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. They continue to use their own national currencies, although all but Denmark are obliged to join once they meet the euro convergence criteria. Among non-EU member states, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City have formal agreements with the EU to use the euro as their official currency and issue their own coins.

In addition, Kosovo and Montenegro have adopted the euro unilaterally. These six countries, however, have no representation in any eurozone institution.

The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the eurozone, the Eurogroup is an informal body of finance ministers that makes fiscal policy for the currency union, and the European System of Central Banks is responsible for fiscal and monetary cooperation between eurozone and non-eurozone EU members. The European Central Bank (ECB) makes monetary policy for the eurozone, sets its base interest rate, and issues euro banknotes and coins.

Since the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the eurozone has established and used provisions for granting emergency loans to member states in return for enacting economic reforms. The eurozone has also enacted some limited fiscal integration; for example, in peer review of each other's national budgets. The issue is political and in a state of flux in terms of what further provisions will be agreed for eurozone change. No eurozone member state has left, and there are no provisions to do so or to be expelled.

Territory

Eurozone

In 1998, eleven member states of the European Union had met the euro convergence criteria, and the eurozone came into existence with the official launch of the euro (alongside national currencies) on 1 January 1999 in those countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Greece qualified in 2000 and was admitted on 1 January 2001.

These twelve founding members introduced physical euro banknotes and euro coins on 1 January 2002. After a short transition period, they took out of circulation and rendered invalid their pre-euro national coins and notes.

Between 2007 and 2023, eight new states have acceded: Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

state	ISO code	adopted on 1 January of	population in 2021	nominal GNI in 2021 in millions of USD	nominal GNI as fraction of eurozone total	nominal GNI per capita in 2021 in USD	pre-euro currency	conversion rate of euro to pre-euro currency	pre-euro currency was also used in	territories where euro is not used
Austria	AT	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".8,932,664	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".472,474	3.27%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".52,893	schilling	13.7603
Belgium	BE	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".11,554,767	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".585,375	4.05%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".50,661	franc	40.3399	Luxembourg
Croatia	HR	2023	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".4,036,355	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".68,724	0.48%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".17,026	kuna	7.53450
Cyprus	CY	2008	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".896,007	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".25,634	0.18%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".28,609	pound	0.585274		Northern Cyprus
Estonia	EE	2011	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".1,330,068	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".35,219	0.24%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".26,479	kroon	15.6466
Finland	FI	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".5,533,793	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".296,473	2.05%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".53,575	markka	5.94573
France	FR	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".67,656,682	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".2,991,553	20.69%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".44,217	franc	6.55957	Andorra Monaco	New Caledonia French Polynesia Wallis and Futuna
Germany	DE	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".83,155,031	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".4,298,325	29.72%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".51,690	Mark	1.95583	Kosovo Montenegro
Greece	GR	2001	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".10,678,632	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".212,807	1.47%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".19,928	drachma	340.750
Ireland	IE	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".5,006,324	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".383,084	2.65%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".76,520	pound	0.787564
Italy	IT	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".59,236,213	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".2,127,119	14.71%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".35,909	lira	1936.27	San Marino Vatican City
Latvia	LV	2014	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".1,893,223	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".37,295	0.26%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".19,699	lats	0.702804
Lithuania	LT	2015	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".2,795,680	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".60,884	0.42%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".21,778	litas	3.45280
Luxembourg	LU	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".634,730	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".56,449	0.39%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".88,934	franc	40.3399	Belgium
Malta	MT	2008	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".516,100	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".15,948	0.11%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".30,901	lira	0.429300
Netherlands	NL	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".17,475,415	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".967,837	6.69%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".55,383	guilder	2.20371		Aruba Curaçao Sint Maarten Caribbean Netherlands
Portugal	PT	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".10,298,252	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".246,714	1.71%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".23,957	escudo	200.482
Slovakia	SK	2009	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".5,459,781	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".112,424	0.78%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".20,591	koruna	30.1260
Slovenia	SI	2007	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".2,108,977	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".59,608	0.41%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".28,264	tolar	239.640
Spain	ES	1999	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".47,398,695	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".1,407,936	9.74%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".29,704	peseta	166.386	Andorra
eurozone	EZ	N/A	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".346,597,389	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".14,461,883	100.00%	0Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ","..Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character ",".41,725	N/A	N/A	N/A	see above

Dependent territories of EU member states not part of the EU

Three of the dependent territories of EU member states not part of the EU have adopted the euro:

• Territorial collectivity of Saint Barthélemy (French territory, with France ensuring eurozone laws are implemented)
• Overseas Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (French territory, with France ensuring eurozone laws are implemented)
• French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French territory, with France ensuring eurozone laws are implemented)

See also

In Spanish: Eurozona para niños