Second in the EU, and second from the bottom
In 2024, firms that had grown fast for three years employed 26.37% of the employees of Greece’s businesses with ten or more staff. Only Malta, at 31.87%, was higher among the 26 member states with a published figure; Eurostat keeps Ireland’s 2024 figure confidential. The figures were published on 1 October 2026.
France is near the other end: 5.67%, less than a quarter of the Greek share, and above only Cyprus (4.09%). Belgium (7.35%) and Austria (8.76%) come next. The European Union as a whole stands at an estimated 12.84%, Germany at 12.39%, Italy at 11.59% and Spain at 11.09%.
Counted in firms rather than employees, the gap narrows: 15.57% of Greece’s businesses with ten or more staff were high-growth firms, against 7.92% of France’s. So Greece’s fast growers are larger than its average business of that size, and hold a bigger share of the employees than of the firms; France’s are smaller than average, and the reverse holds.
| Member state | Share of employees | Share of firms |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | 12.84% | 10.01% |
| Malta | 31.87% | 16.94% |
| Greece | 26.37% | 15.57% |
| Portugal | 21.73% | 13.63% |
| Denmark | 20.26% | 14.76% |
| Finland | 18.79% | 14.63% |
| Sweden | 17.73% | 11.45% |
| Hungary | 17.45% | 11.56% |
| Lithuania | 16.42% | 11.53% |
| Estonia | 15.99% | 10.62% |
| Bulgaria | 14.65% | 10.2% |
| Croatia | 14.21% | 13.05% |
| Netherlands | 13.95% | 12.79% |
| Poland | 13.04% | 8.36% |
| Latvia | 12.59% | 10.64% |
| Germany | 12.39% | 8.34% |
| Slovakia | 11.9% | 9.95% |
| Italy | 11.59% | 9.6% |
| Czechia | 11.47% | 9.19% |
| Luxembourg | 11.33% | 10.8% |
| Spain | 11.09% | 10.77% |
| Romania | 9.96% | 9.87% |
| Slovenia | 9.02% | 9.56% |
| Austria | 8.76% | 9.69% |
| Belgium | 7.35% | 8.02% |
| France | 5.67% | 7.92% |
| Cyprus | 4.09% | 2.22% |
What counts as fast-growing
A firm counts as high-growth when it had at least ten employees at the start and its number of employees grew by more than 10% a year on average over three years. For 2024, the three years run from 2021 to 2024. The test looks at growth only, not at how big or how old the firm is.
The share divides the employees of those firms by the employees of all active businesses with ten or more staff, in industry, construction and market services. Public administration is left out, and schools, hospitals and care homes count only when they are run as businesses. Firms with fewer than ten employees, and the self-employed, are in neither number.
It is not a count of jobs created. Every employee of a high-growth firm is counted, including those who were there before it grew, and nothing here says how many jobs other firms lost or how total employment moved. The three years start in 2021; the table does not say how much of the growth made up for earlier losses, and this edition does not guess.
- THE FIRM: a business with at least ten employees at the start, whose number of employees grew by more than 10% a year on average over three years. For the 2024 figure the three years are 2021 to 2024. Size and age do not enter the test.
- THE SHARE: the employees of those firms divided by the employees of all active businesses with ten or more employees, in industry, construction and market services. It is a share of employees, not of firms and not of everyone in work.
- WHAT IT IS NOT: a count of jobs created. Every employee of a high-growth firm is counted, including those who were there before it grew, and jobs lost in other firms are not subtracted.
So 26.37% in Greece does not say that a quarter of Greek jobs are new, or that Greece’s economy grew faster: it says that over a quarter of employees in businesses with ten or more staff worked, in 2024, for a firm whose headcount had grown by more than a tenth a year since 2021.
One test for the firm, one division for the share, and a reading that forgets either says what the source does not.
Ahead in every sector but education
Greece’s share is higher than France’s in 17 of the 18 sections of activity the table covers. It passes a third of employees in six of them: administrative and support services (40.5%), information and communication (36.13%), construction (35.18%), transport and storage (34.54%), professional, scientific and technical activities (34.24%) and the repair of computers and household goods (33.81%).
Education is the exception: 12.26% of employees of French education businesses work for a high-growth firm, against 6.25% in Greece. France’s highest shares are in arts and entertainment (12.78%), education (12.26%) and accommodation and food (12.16%); in manufacturing it is 2.78%, against 26.25% in Greece.
In head counts the order reverses: France’s high-growth firms had 877,985 employees in 2024, Greece’s 506,669, in 15,424 firms against 7,528. Both shares were lower than in 2023, when they stood at 28.35% in Greece and 6.26% in France.
| Section of activity | Greece, share | France, share | Greece, employees | France, employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining and quarrying | 22.86% | 0.57% | 1,226 | 75 |
| Manufacturing | 26.25% | 2.78% | 75,740 | 79,596 |
| Electricity and gas supply | 9.75% | 1.81% | 1,988 | 4,179 |
| Water supply and waste | 15.46% | 2.72% | 2,106 | 6,829 |
| Construction | 35.18% | 5.11% | 30,199 | 59,804 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 20.41% | 4.65% | 83,030 | 126,005 |
| Transport and storage | 34.54% | 4.01% | 35,639 | 50,217 |
| Accommodation and food | 29.21% | 12.16% | 135,374 | 99,518 |
| Information and communication | 36.13% | 8.62% | 28,861 | 76,077 |
| Finance and insurance | 9.34% | 3.61% | 4,497 | 28,716 |
| Real estate | 17.06% | 3.3% | 2,210 | 7,178 |
| Professional, scientific and technical activities | 34.24% | 9.12% | 31,409 | 84,930 |
| Administrative and support services | 40.5% | 7.61% | 58,035 | 150,452 |
| Education | 6.25% | 12.26% | 3,207 | 22,411 |
| Health and social work | 6.97% | 6.13% | 4,196 | 57,664 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 19.94% | 12.78% | 6,675 | 18,727 |
| Repair of computers and household goods | 33.81% | 2.6% | 428 | 546 |
| Other personal services | 15.59% | 5.28% | 1,849 | 5,061 |
What these figures do not say
They do not say which economy is stronger. A high share means that many firms grew fast from where they stood in 2021; it does not mean that more people are in work, that pay is higher or that the growth will last.
They do not say why. Nothing here measures the part played by tourism, by reforms, by taxes or by the years before 2021, and no policy is assessed.
They describe 2024, not this year. They cover businesses with ten or more employees, not smaller firms or the self-employed, and Eurostat publishes no 2024 figure for Ireland. None of this is a forecast.
