Consumers in numbers
This page tracks four indicators that shape any consumer plan in Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the EU-27: how many…
Read →Business & digital adoption
This page shows how enterprises with ten or more employees in Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the EU-27 use three digital…
Read →The EU market research industry
The market research and public opinion polling industry, classified as NACE M73.2, had a net turnover of €17,046.9…
Read →What this section covers
Open data is where good market research starts. Before anyone designs a questionnaire, official statistics can answer a surprising number of questions: how many potential customers a country has, how many of them already buy online, how confident households feel and how prices compare with the EU average. Those figures are free, harmonised across countries and citable, which makes them the natural benchmark for survey results and the first chapter of any desk research project.
The section has three parts. Consumers covers online shopping, daily internet use, monthly consumer confidence and price levels, the context for any B2C plan. Business shows how many enterprises use artificial intelligence, social media and paid online advertising, which matters if you sell to companies or compete with them for attention. Research industry tracks the market research and opinion polling sector itself: turnover, number of enterprises, employment and productivity across the EU-27.
Official statistics describe averages and arrive with a delay, so they rarely settle a decision alone. They do show where the questions are, and our market research reports take it from there.
Population and income
Population sets the outer limit of any consumer market. According to the World Bank, Bulgaria had 6,433,302 inhabitants in 2025, the Netherlands 18,087,633 and the European Union 451,127,411. Bulgaria's population has been edging down, from 6,465,097 in 2022, while the Dutch population grew from 17,700,982 over the same period.
Income tells you what that population can spend. World Bank data put GDP per capita in 2025 at US$20,328 in Bulgaria, US$73,684 in the Netherlands and US$47,089 in the EU, in current US dollars. Bulgaria's figure has risen by about 45% since 2022, when it stood at US$14,000, although part of any change in current-dollar terms reflects exchange rate movements. Even so, Dutch GDP per capita in 2025 was roughly 3.6 times the Bulgarian level.
Frequently asked questions
How often are the figures updated?
Each indicator is refreshed when its publisher releases new data. Monthly series, such as Eurostat's consumer confidence indicator, change every month, while annual surveys on online shopping, internet use or enterprise AI adoption are updated once a year. Structural business statistics on the research industry arrive with a longer delay. The latest year and the dataset code are shown with every chart.
Can I use these charts and figures in my own report?
Yes. The underlying data are published by Eurostat, the World Bank and CBS under open terms. When you quote a figure, cite the original publisher, the dataset and the year, for example "Eurostat, isoc_ec_ib20, 2025", rather than this website, so readers can check it at source. Our guide to free market data sources for Europe has more citation tips.
Why do you compare Bulgaria with the Netherlands?
They are our two main markets and they sit near opposite ends of many European rankings, which makes the comparison instructive. In 2025, for instance, Eurostat placed the Netherlands second in the EU-27 for the share of people who bought online and Bulgaria twenty-seventh. The EU-27 average sits between them as a neutral reference point.
Why are some years missing from the charts?
Several Eurostat surveys do not cover every topic every year. Questions on enterprise AI use or paid internet advertising, for example, are included only in some survey rounds, so a series may jump from one year to the next available one. We show these gaps as they are rather than filling them with estimates.
Sources
- World Bank WDI — Population, total (2026-10-08)
- World Bank WDI — GDP per capita (current US$) (2026-10-08)
- World Bank WDI — Individuals using the Internet (% of population) (2026-10-08)
- Eurostat — Internet purchases by individuals (2020 onwards) (2026-04-17)
- Eurostat — Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev. 2 activity and special aggregates (2026-09-30)