What European governments pay to borrow, since 2000
The rate at which a government borrows for 10 years tells you what markets think of its credit. Play 26 years of yields on the map: the early convergence of the euro, the debt crisis, negative rates, then the return of inflation. Then compare countries with each other, and each one with Germany.
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10-year government bond yield, monthly average. Play the animation or move the slider; the ranking follows the month shown. A grey country has no published yield that month.
Ranking for the month
More debt, higher yields?
Each dot is a country: left or right by its public debt (as a % of GDP), lower or higher by the rate at which it borrows. The chart follows the month chosen on the map; debt is that year's, or the latest year published.
Yields since 2000, country by country
Pick up to six countries. The dotted grey line is the euro area average, the black stepped line the ECB deposit rate. Hover over or tap the chart to read each month.
What each country pays over Germany
The yield spread over Germany, in percentage points: the premium markets demand to lend to this country rather than to Germany. Below zero, the country borrows more cheaply than Germany. Same countries as above.
Questions people ask
What is a government's 10-year borrowing rate?
It is the annual return an investor earns by lending to that government for ten years, by buying its bonds on the market. When investors doubt the government, they demand more to lend to it, and the yield rises. Ten years is the benchmark maturity: long enough to reflect confidence in public finances, traded enough for the price to be reliable. The figure shown is the monthly average.
Why compare each country with Germany?
In the euro area, every government borrows in the same currency, with the same central bank. What sets them apart is the confidence they inspire. Germany, whose debt is seen as the safest in the area, is the benchmark: the spread over Germany measures the premium markets demand to lend to another country rather than to Germany. Outside the euro area (United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Poland...), the spread mixes that confidence with the currency and the policy of the country's own central bank.
How does the ECB rate relate to government yields?
The ECB sets the price of very short-term money: its deposit rate is what banks earn on the cash they place with it. Ten-year government yields follow that price over time, because they reflect what markets expect ECB rates to be over ten years, plus a risk premium specific to each government. When the ECB started raising rates in July 2022, every borrowing rate went up; it is the gap between countries that tells you about their health.
Why negative yields?
Between 2014 and 2022, the ECB deposit rate was below zero, and the ECB bought government debt on a massive scale. The safest bonds became so sought after that investors accepted losing a little money to hold them: lending to Germany or Switzerland for 10 years paid less than nothing for several years.
Why does Switzerland borrow so cheaply?
Its public debt is low, its franc is a safe haven, and inflation there has stayed lower than elsewhere, which lets the Swiss National Bank keep rates low. Investors therefore accept a low yield for the safety it offers.
Why not today's yield?
The public sources that are comparable across all countries (Eurostat for the EU, the OECD for the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway) publish each month's average once the month is over. The current month therefore appears a few weeks after it ends. Daily yields exist, but they would come from different sources depending on the country, and would no longer be comparable from one country to the next.
And where does the debt figure come from?
It is public debt as defined by the EU treaties (central government, local authorities and social security), reported each year by each country to Eurostat, in euros and as a share of GDP. It only exists once a year: on the map and the chart, a month of 2026 shows the debt of the latest year published. The United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway are not included: Eurostat does not publish their debt in this dataset.
Sources. Eurostat, long-term government bond yields used for the Maastricht convergence criterion, for the 27 EU countries and the euro area (composition at each date). OECD, long-term interest rates, for the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway. Latest month published: September 2026, updated daily. ECB deposit rate: European Central Bank, series republished by the Banque de France, last value of each month. Public debt: Eurostat, consolidated gross general government debt (Maastricht notification), annual. Base map: Natural Earth.