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In 2025, 52.7% of EU enterprises used at least one paid cloud-computing service. Adoption was far higher among large businesses (85%) than SMEs (52%). Hosted email, office software and file storage were the most common uses, while enterprise resource planning, customer-relationship management and application-development platforms were used by fewer than one-third of enterprises.
Those figures describe EU enterprises covered by Eurostat’s survey, not every company worldwide. The survey covers businesses with at least 10 employees in specified economic sectors and measures paid cloud services. There is no single authoritative global percentage that uses the same definition, year and company population.
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The latest official EU measure puts paid-cloud adoption at 52.7% of enterprises in 2025. Eurostat reported that this was a 7.4-percentage-point increase from 2023. In practical terms, slightly more than half of the surveyed EU businesses paid a provider for online software, storage, computing power or a related cloud capability during the reference period.
The number is not a worldwide adoption rate. It is an EU enterprise statistic with a defined survey population, and it counts an enterprise if it uses at least one paid cloud service. A company that runs only its own servers, uses a free service outside the survey’s paid categories, or falls outside the covered sectors is not necessarily represented by the figure.
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For context, the European Union’s policy objective is for 75% of European businesses to use cloud-edge technologies by 2030. That target is broader than the 2025 paid-cloud measure, so it should not be treated as a direct forecast that adoption will rise from 52.7% to 75% on a like-for-like basis.
How does Eurostat define cloud-computing use?
The European Commission describes cloud computing as access to computing resources hosted by third parties over the internet instead of building or expanding an organisation’s own IT infrastructure. Eurostat’s enterprise survey turns that concept into a measurable question about buying cloud services.
Four details determine what the percentage means:
- Paid use: the 2025 headline covers services the enterprise purchased, rather than every occasional or free online tool.
- Enterprise population: the survey covers enterprises with at least 10 employees in the specified NACE sectors. It is not a census of microbusinesses, sole traders or informal companies.
- Reference year: 2025 is the year of the measured activity; the release reporting those results appeared in 2026.
- Service scope: one basic service is enough to count as a cloud user. The measure does not require migration of core systems or use of infrastructure-as-a-service.
When comparing a statistic from another country or vendor survey, check the year, geography, employee-size bands and definition of “cloud use” before drawing a conclusion. A survey that counts any cloud-edge technology, free accounts or only advanced infrastructure services will produce a different percentage.
How has business cloud adoption changed over time?
EU adoption has grown substantially over the period covered by the official series, although the wording and rounding of releases are not perfectly identical.
| Reference year | Reported share | What the figure represents |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 17.8% | EU enterprises buying cloud services |
| 2023 | 45% | Businesses buying cloud services, as reported in the 2023 release |
| 2025 | 52.7% | EU enterprises using paid cloud computing services |
Eurostat’s 2026 release says the 2025 result is 7.4 percentage points above 2023. Because the earlier publications use different wording and rounding, the safest interpretation is a clear upward direction rather than a claim that every point in the series was collected under exactly the same questionnaire wording.
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The long-run increase also hides a change in what companies do with cloud services. Early adoption often meant moving email or office tools online. Current adoption still centres on those services, but a growing minority uses cloud platforms for databases, enterprise software, application development and elastic computing power.
Is cloud adoption higher for large companies than for SMEs?
Yes. Size is one of the strongest differences in the 2025 EU data: 85% of large businesses bought cloud services, compared with 52% of SMEs.
| Enterprise group | Cloud-service use | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Large businesses | 85% | EU, 2025 |
| SMEs | 52% | EU, 2025 |
| Large enterprises | 77.6% | European Commission breakdown, 2023 |
| Medium enterprises | 59% | European Commission breakdown, 2023 |
| Small enterprises | 41.7% | European Commission breakdown, 2023 |
The 2023 size breakdown is shown separately because it comes from an earlier edition and uses its own publication wording. The gap is not simply a question of willingness to adopt technology. Large organisations usually have dedicated IT staff, bigger budgets and more applications that benefit from centralised identity, security and administration. Smaller firms may still use cloud email or file sharing but not purchase specialised platforms, which lowers their chance of being counted as users of the broader set of services.
Which European countries use cloud computing the most?
National adoption varies sharply. In the 2025 EU table, Finland had the highest share, while Bulgaria had the lowest.
| Country | Enterprises using paid cloud services in 2025 | Position in the EU table |
|---|---|---|
| Finland | 79.2% | Highest reported share |
| Italy | 75.6% | Among the highest |
| Malta | 74.9% | Among the highest |
| Romania | 24.9% | Among the lowest |
| Greece | 24.3% | Among the lowest |
| Bulgaria | 17.8% | Lowest reported share |
A country percentage is an average across many industries and company sizes. It does not mean that every business in Finland, Italy or Bulgaria has the same level of cloud maturity. Differences can reflect the mix of large and small firms, sector composition, broadband and digital infrastructure, national support programmes, and how widely companies purchase the services included in the questionnaire.
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Which cloud services do companies use most?
Basic, familiar services dominate EU enterprise cloud use. The service table below shows the share of enterprises reporting each category in 2025; an enterprise can appear in several rows.
| Cloud service category | Share of EU enterprises |
|---|---|
| 85.15% | |
| Office software | 71.69% |
| File storage | 71.53% |
| Security software | 65.49% |
| Finance or accounting software | 58.16% |
| Database hosting | 45.52% |
| Enterprise resource planning (ERP) | 30.12% |
| Computing power to run the enterprise’s own software | 28.18% |
| Customer relationship management (CRM) | 27.91% |
| Application-development, testing or deployment platforms | 26.08% |
The pattern matters more than any single ranking. Email, office suites and storage are horizontal tools that almost every department can use, so they are common entry points. ERP and CRM affect specialised business processes, while hosted databases and development platforms require more technical integration. Their lower percentages indicate that many enterprises have adopted cloud software without yet moving their core systems or software-production environments.
The percentages are not intended to add to 100%. A business may buy email, office software, storage, security and finance applications from different providers, and may also operate systems in its own data centre.
Why do cloud-adoption statistics differ so much?
Most apparent contradictions come from comparing measures that answer different questions. Use these checks before putting two percentages in the same chart or paragraph.
- Match the year. A 2023 result can be lower simply because it predates the 2025 survey.
- Match the geography. An EU average is not comparable with a single-country result or a worldwide sample.
- Match company size. A large-enterprise survey will normally show higher adoption than a sample dominated by small businesses.
- Match the definition. “Paid cloud services,” “any cloud use,” “cloud-edge technologies” and “advanced infrastructure services” are different populations.
- Check the unit. A percentage of enterprises is not the percentage of employees, IT workloads or company revenue.
The EU’s 75% 2030 objective illustrates the definition issue. It concerns cloud-edge technologies in European businesses, whereas the 52.7% figure concerns paid cloud services in the 2025 enterprise survey. Both are useful policy measures, but they should not be presented as if they were identical statistics.
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What does a national example reveal about “cloud adoption”?
Ireland’s official 2025 enterprise results show why a single adoption percentage is only a starting point. Irish enterprises reported different rates for individual services:
- Cloud email: 64.2%
- Office software: 58.1%
- Finance or accounting software: 52.9%
- File storage: 51.8%
- Security software: 42.6%
These figures describe a bundle of purchases rather than one all-or-nothing migration. A company may have adopted hosted email and accounting while retaining an on-premises database and line-of-business application. Two businesses can therefore both qualify as cloud users while having very different costs, risks and technical dependence on providers.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is there a reliable worldwide percentage of companies in the cloud?
Not from the official sources used for this comparison. They provide a well-defined EU measure, but no harmonised global percentage covering every company, country, employee-size class and cloud definition.
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For a board presentation or market analysis, label the statistic in full—for example, “EU enterprises with at least 10 employees using paid cloud services, 2025”—instead of shortening it to “52.7% of companies.” That wording prevents readers from mistaking a regional enterprise measure for a global total.
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How should a business use these statistics when planning its own move to the cloud?
Use the percentages as benchmarks, not as a prescription. A company deciding what to adopt should first map its current services and the business outcome it needs.
- Inventory existing systems. Separate email, collaboration, storage, security, finance, databases and custom applications. Record where data is stored and who administers each system.
- Classify workloads by consequence. Identify systems where an outage, data loss or regulatory breach would stop operations. These need stronger recovery, access-control and supplier provisions than low-risk collaboration tools.
- Choose a measurable first workload. Define a baseline such as support tickets, recovery time, monthly cost or deployment frequency. A cloud purchase is worthwhile only if it improves a business outcome or reduces a clearly identified burden.
- Check portability and exit. Confirm how data can be exported, how long retrieval takes, what formats are available and what happens if the provider changes terms or suffers an outage.
- Review the result before expanding. Compare the measured outcome with the baseline, then decide whether a second workload belongs with the same provider or should remain on existing infrastructure.
This approach also explains why a company can be “in the cloud” without being fully cloud-native. Adoption is a portfolio decision: some services may be hosted, some may remain on-premises, and the balance can change as requirements and skills evolve.
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What is the clearest conclusion from the statistics?
Cloud computing is mainstream among surveyed EU enterprises, but adoption is uneven and usually starts with basic software rather than wholesale infrastructure replacement. The most defensible headline is therefore specific: in 2025, 52.7% of the covered EU enterprises paid for at least one cloud service, with much higher participation among large businesses and wide variation between countries. Any broader claim should state its own population, year and definition instead of presenting that figure as a worldwide answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do these figures include companies using only free cloud software?
The headline measure is based on paid cloud services. A business that uses only a free account may not qualify under the same survey measure, even though it is technically using an online service.
Are microbusinesses and sole traders included in the EU percentage?
The Eurostat enterprise survey covers businesses with at least 10 employees in specified sectors. Results therefore cannot be read as a complete count of one-person firms or every informal business.
Why can two companies both be called cloud users yet have very different IT setups?
The threshold is use of at least one qualifying service. One company might host only email, while another runs databases, finance systems and custom applications online; both satisfy the basic adoption definition.
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Check the release’s reference year, countries, employee-size bands, industries and definition of use. Then compare those characteristics with your own organisation rather than applying the percentage as a forecast for your company.
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