Eurospace Facts & Figures

Eurospace announces the release of the 30th edition of the annual facts & figures report

Eurospace facts & figures cover 2026

Eurospace facts & figures cover 2026

About the survey

Every year, Eurospace, the association of the European space manufacturing industry, issues the annual update of its facts & figures statistical series.

Since its inception, the statistical collection aims at measuring the value of the market for space systems design, development and production in Europe (i.e. the space industry manufacturing activity). Space systems are defined in detail (see “products definitions”) in order to ensure an appropriate data collection and to avoid misinterpretation of the data sets.

This statistical effort is supported by two main driving principles:

  • The focus on manufacturing activities (with the exclusion of all services related to the exploitation of space systems: launch services and satellite operations). Service activities associated to the manufacturing process of space systems (such as engineering and test services, consultancies etc.) are included in the perimeter of the survey. A share of ground systems operations is also included, when they are performed for Space agencies in Europe.
  • The effort to measure the value of the end-market, with the elimination of all inter-sectoral business that could be counted twice or more.

Perimeter of the survey

The Eurospace facts & figures survey focuses on measuring the economic value of industrial activities associated to the design, development and manufacturing of space systems (also called the upstream sector) in Europe.

It does not consider non-space products (such as missiles or consumer-end terminals such as GPS receivers, Satellite TV receivers and dishes, etc.) nor the provision of services based on the exploitation of space assets. This means that the revenues and employment of such companies as Eutelsat, Paradigm, Inmarsat, Arianespace, SES Global, and other operators are not included in the perimeter of the survey.

Data Collection

The data collection is supported by companies with space activities operating in Europe (not limited to Eurospace membership). Companies answer a questionnaire providing detailed information on their sales and employment relevant to space systems design, development and manufacturing. All information released to Eurospace is protected by a confidentiality agreement. The quality of the survey is only as good as the data provided by participating companies.

Most companies in the space manufacturing sector have participated at least once to the Eurospace survey in the past. The main players (companies with more than 100 space employees) usually support the survey on a very regular basis, while smaller players may only sporadically support the survey . When a reply is missing from a company, it is supplemented by an estimate based on a previous reply received from that company, and/or publicly available information on the company.

The space manufacturing sector in Europe is at the same time very fragmented and very concentrated. The 30 largest space units in Europe make for almost 70% of total employment of the sector. The remaining smaller players representing barely 30% of employment. It is also interesting to note that most smaller players work almost exclusively as subcontractors to the largest players. A new breed of companies has entered the sector in the past few years, supported by a large wave of company creation funded by private equity and venture capital. These new space start-ups now provide a sizeable share of employment in the sector, but are often in pore-revenue stage, and do not contribute large volumes of measurable business in the survey. Only a small fraction of them participates in the survey and for the most of them the relevant data points must be gathered from open source information.

From a statistical point of view, this means that an efficient data collection shall focus on collecting at least the main replies (the large players, and particularly the prime contractors) that will provide a good assessment of the final sales. Collecting additional replies from increasingly smaller players, adds a layer of detail to the survey and improve, sometimes very significantly, the measurement of employment; but it  does not affect as much the overall value of final sales and has a limited impact on the market data.

Survey representativeness

The Eurospace facts & figures economic model counts a total of 550 individual entries in 2026, representing a total of >750 companies/entities. During the 2026 survey we updated 230 entities, representing 90% of final sales and almost 80% of space employment. We believe that our survey is the most accurate in the European space sector both from the methodological and from the data collection points of view.

Survey 2026 – main results and key trends

The latest f&f report is only available to companies having supported the survey and to European institutions. Contact pierre.lionnet(@)eurospace.org to check whether you are eligible for a free PDF copy.

All others can download:

Note that all elements of the Eurospace Facts and Figures publication, including, data, charts and reports are provided for information purposes to the general public via .www.eurospace.org. All rights to use, repost or reproduce any excerpt of text, tables and charts are reserved by Eurospace. View our copyright policy here.

Key data and information

In 30 years the European space industry has nearly doubled its level of employment and more than tripled its revenues (in current economic conditions).

In 2025 industry posted much higher revenues than the previous years, getting near the 11B€ ceiling for final sales after more than a decade of relatively stagnating results. These are current economic conditions of course and the “real” growth is probably less. Still the amount impresses, and it is clearly driven by three main market segments.

Lacking a publicly available deflator for the geographical perimeter of the survey, where sales data is expressed in many different currencies (EUR, GPB, SKR, NOK, CHF, PLN…), we chose to keep expressing the sales data exclusively in current EUR. Every year we convert other currencies to EUR with the average annual market rate. About 82% of the model data is originally expressed in EUR.

Definitions

  • Direct industry employment: personnel employed directly by the company (permanent staff, measured in FTE).
  • Other personnel working on site: personnel directly supporting company activities supplied by a third party (interim workers, engineering, etc. measured in FTE).
  • Final sales: sector sales to final customers (equal to consolidated sales).
European space industry employment and final sales 1991-2025

European space industry employment and final sales 1991-2025

European institutional programmes (67% of industry’s final sales) + 18%

This is the consequence of the growth of European space budgets. With 1,1B€ increased revenues the European institutional segment sees the major growth of 2025. This growth was mostly fuelled by ESA (+460M€), military programmes (+338M€) and national civil programmes (+209M€). In the ESA segment most of the growth was driven by Scientific and Exploration programmes. In the military segment the growth was mostly associated to Remote Sensing and GNSS programmes.

Impressive growth in Science & Exploration and Launcher programmes

In 2025 ESA invested much more over science and exploration programmes (notably the Exploration Envelope Programme) with a massive surge in related revenues in the industrial sector +73%). With 7 launches in 2025, the business with European launch services operators also improved significantly. In contrast, the revenues from launcher development programmes have remained quite stable. The launcher business also profited from a favourable export environment (European launcher fairings are exported notably to the USA and to Japan) that sustained revenues in the segment.

Satellite applications, though, still represent the largest revenue segment for the European industry, with commercial and institutional customers in Europe and abroad. Generating almost 5B€ in revenues in 2025, and growing by 21%. The rise of military demand for satellite programmes is worth noting, with a marked growth in Remote Sensing systems. The demand growth for Earth observation systems also represented an important increase in export sales.

Commercial and export sales by system in 2025 M€ +153% fuelled by operational launchers and exports

Overall the results of the 2026 survey seem to confirm the analysis of global trends with the shifting political priorities in European space programmes in a context of increased institutional spending, the globally receding trends in traditional commercial satellite segments (and in particular the large GEO paradigm), and the positive impact of European launcher’s surge in revenues supported by the European captive institutional demand and the commercial perspectives offered by the deployment of constellations, in particular Amazon Leo which is a key customer for Ariane 6.

Final sales by Customer Segment (M€)

European space industry sales by main customer segment, 2009-2025 M€ (copyright by Eurospace)

Final sales by Product Segment (M€)

European space industry sales by main product segment, 2009-2025 M€ (copyright by Eurospace)