Europe is totally dominated by the European Union in every aspect, including economics. Whilst the United States takes the top spot on the global rich-list, if the European Union was considered a single country, it would be number one with a combined GDP of 18 trillion dollars, 14 trillion of which is attributed to the countries within the Eurozone. With a total of six countries topping a yearly GDP of one trillion dollars and making the global top ten, the continent sets a record, but doing considerably better than the rest is Germany, Europe's biggest economy and the World's fourth largest. Germany is also the World's largest exporter and second largest importer, which helps to fund what many people describe as the best social security system on the planet.

We have chose to include both the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) estimates along with those from the World Bank, and the variations in the two sets of figures can be explained by different testing criteria and techniques by the World's two 'most trusted' financial institutions. The figures below are listed by 'nominal' Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures the market value of all goods and services from an entire nation in a given year.