The Warsaw capital region recorded the highest employment rate anywhere in the European Union in 2025, with 86.9% of people aged 20 to 64 in work, according to new Eurostat figures. The Polish region overtook Prague and Finland’s Åland islands to take first place among 244 EU regions covered by the data.
The figure puts the Warsaw region 10.8 percentage points above the EU average of 76.1% and 8.1 points above Poland’s national rate of 78.8%. Poland’s overall employment rate also increased from 78.4% in 2024, while the EU-wide rate reached its highest level since comparable records began in 2009.
The Eurostat regional ranking puts Prague second on 86.0%, followed by Åland at 85.5%, Utrecht in the Netherlands at 85.4%, Germany’s Oberbayern at 85.1% and Sweden’s Mellersta Norrland at 85.0%. Those were the only six EU regions with employment rates of at least 85%.
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Warsaw moves from second to first
The Warsaw capital region was already near the top of the European ranking. In 2024 its employment rate stood at 86.2%, second only to Åland’s 86.4%. The latest figures therefore represent a 0.7 percentage-point increase and move the Polish region into first place.
Eurostat’s measure covers the share of all people aged between 20 and 64 who are employed. It is therefore different from the unemployment rate, which measures unemployed people as a share of the labour force rather than the entire working-age population.
The result is also well above the EU’s 78% employment target for 2030. Across the bloc, 115 of 244 regions — 47.1% — had already reached or exceeded that target in 2025, while 64 regions recorded employment rates below 74%.
The “Warsaw region” is larger than Warsaw itself
The result does not refer only to the administrative city of Warsaw. The statistical region known as Warszawski stołeczny is a NUTS 2 territory consisting of Warsaw and nine surrounding counties.
According to Statistics Poland’s definition, it includes the counties of Legionowo, Mińsk, Nowy Dwór, Otwock, Wołomin, Grodzisk, Piaseczno, Pruszków and Warsaw West in addition to the capital itself. The remainder of Mazowieckie forms a separate statistical region.
That distinction matters when comparing Warsaw with other European capitals: Eurostat is comparing standardised statistical regions rather than city boundaries, which differ substantially between countries.
More than 90% of men in employment
The Polish capital region also performs strongly when the data are divided by sex. Eurostat’s 2026 regional analysis shows that 90.3% of men aged 20 to 64 in Warszawski stołeczny were employed in 2025 — the second-highest male rate in the EU after Prague’s 91.5%.
The female employment rate was 83.7%, one of the highest in Europe. Only Lithuania’s capital region Sostinės regionas and Finland’s Åland recorded higher female rates among the regions highlighted by Eurostat.
The Warsaw region also ranks strongly for people entering the labour market. Among 20- to 34-year-olds who had recently completed upper-secondary or higher education, its employment rate reached 94.3% in 2025.
Poland’s wider labour market remains strong
The Warsaw figure comes against a comparatively strong national labour market. Poland’s employment rate for people aged 20 to 64 rose to 78.8% in 2025, above the 76.1% EU average. Poland and Malta also recorded an unemployment rate of 3.1% last year, the second-lowest level in the EU after Czechia.
But the regional figures also underline how strongly economic activity is concentrated around major metropolitan areas. A high employment rate does not by itself show wage levels, productivity, job quality or living costs, and it should not be interpreted as a comprehensive ranking of regional prosperity.
What the data do show is that, measured simply by the proportion of working-age residents with jobs, the Warsaw metropolitan region currently sits at the top of the European Union.
