Europe: update on capital stock

Within the Europe region, capital stock values grew an average of seven percent per year.

The Europe region includes 31 modeled countries. Average annual growth in capital stock ranged between 2 percent (Switzerland) and 26 percent (Turkey).

Over the past decade, growth in capital stock in Europe has been relatively stable. New investment moderated following the COVID-19 pandemic while construction prices increased at faster than normal rates. Variations in capital stock growth can be attributed to differences in new construction, inflation, or currency exchange rates. For example, Ireland is experiencing a recent period of sustained new housing completions and starts.

Turkey experienced the largest growth in the capital stock value. While new construction has grown significantly in Turkey in recent years, changes in capital stock value have largely been driven by a period of record-high inflation and rapid devaluation of the Turkish Lira.

In Liechtenstein and the United Kingdom, underlying economic data used to develop the Verisk Global Capital Stock Index were revised by each country's statistics office. In the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) updated a number of data sources used to develop gross fixed capital investment estimates in 2024. Revisions resulted in changes to nominal GFCI data from 2020 to 2023 and price index changes from 1997 onwards. The ONS revisions align with the office's revision policy to incorporate better or more complete data, update routine calculations, and improve estimation methods. With these revisions, capital stock in the United Kingdom grew five percent per year, driven by a period of above average construction price increases from 2021 to 2023.