While most of Europe shares a common market nowadays and trade barriers are low, the printing industry in Europe still consists of many national industries and markets. The industry sizes differ typically with the size of the economy of the country, but there are some differences to bear in mind. As the biggest economy in Western Europe, Germany has the largest printing industry as well. With 24% of the European printing industry revenue stemming from Germany, the printing industry is even a bit larger than GDP and population would suggest.

Sizing the European print industry can be a tough business, as in some cases the data is not available or in others multiple sources exist which contradict each other. For example, data sets from the German printing industry association (BVDM) do not always agree with the Eurostat numbers. Accordingly, when looking at this data, it is important to keep the data source in mind and the limitations it might have.

Revenue in the printing industry held up relatively well in most years. The numbers in the chart below show the BVDM numbers for commercial print for companies with 20+ employees. After a steep drop from 2011 to 2014, the numbers held up reasonably well. Since 2014, revenues dropped by 3%. The Eurostat numbers would be a bit more encompassing and include the smaller companies, but 2019 data is missing and sometimes the data has some fluctuations due to adjustments in the statistical base that Eurostat makes from time to time.