Europe Cybersecurity Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecast (2026 - 2031)

Europe Cybersecurity Market Trends and Insights

EU-wide Enforcement of NIS2 and DORA Elevating Mandatory Security Spend

NIS2 expands coverage to more than 160,000 European entities and introduces penalties of up to EUR 10 million or 2% of global turnover, which is shifting cybersecurity budgets from discretionary to compulsory ^{[1]European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, “NIS2 Directive Explained,” enisa.europa.eu}. DORA imposes parallel ICT-risk mandates on financial entities, forcing banks such as Belfius to restructure vendor portfolios for resilience. The legal scope drives average security spending to 9% of IT budgets, while 89% of firms report new hiring needs. Integration-ready platforms and managed services benefit most because they streamline multi-jurisdiction reporting, sustain compliance, and reduce penalty exposure.

Surge in Sophisticated Ransomware Linked to Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Ransomware attacks on European organizations climbed 30% in 2024 as threat actors weaponized geopolitical tensions. Manufacturing bore 84% growth in strike volume during Q1 2025 with breach costs topping USD 5.56 million, eclipsing previous crisis-era losses. Healthcare incidents reached 309 in 2023, half involving ransomware, prompting an EU action plan that allocates additional incident-response resources. Persistent groups such as LockBit executed 1,700 attacks before takedown efforts, underlining the need for behavior-based detection and layered response services.

Rapid Shift to European Sovereign Clouds Driving Zero-Trust Architectures

Gaia-X and national sovereignty mandates encourage enterprises to migrate workloads onto European-operated clouds that guarantee data residency. German retailers, for example, adopt sovereign cloud services delivered by local partners to maintain EU-only data processing while leveraging hyperscaler capacity. This transition pushes security design toward identity-centric zero trust. In Bulgaria, D Commerce Bank achieved 100% traffic inspection after deploying a zero-trust platform that cut alert noise by 50%. Vendors with proven sovereignty compliance and zero-trust frameworks capture expanding wallet share.

Expansion of 5G Private Networks in German and Nordic Manufacturing Hubs

Automotive and heavy-machinery plants connect robots and sensors over private 5G, blending operational technology with IT networks and broadening the attack surface. Manufacturing cybersecurity spend is set to rise 15% in 2025, equivalent to 6-7% of IT budgets. German plant-builder SMS Group secures its 5G-enabled sites with device authentication and encrypted telemetry, safeguarding real-time analytics streams. Long-term spending momentum persists as manufacturers harden connected production lines and integrate threat monitoring into distributed plants.

Acute Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Limiting Implementation Capacity

Europe lacks more than 299,000 qualified cybersecurity professionals, and 76% of existing staff possess no formal credentials. Germany posts double-digit growth in spending yet struggles to fill vacancies, while France expects 15,000 open roles despite salaries approaching USD 98,100. Skills scarcity slows project rollouts, particularly in cloud security and OT protection, compelling enterprises to shift toward managed detection and response as a substitute for in-house capability.

Rising Compliance Costs Straining Mid-Market Enterprise Budgets

Achieving full NIS2 alignment can cost mid-sized firms up to EUR 2 million, a burden amplified in Southern Europe and CEE where IT budgets remain tight. Breach costs an average of EUR 4.8 million, leaving SMEs to weigh preventative spend against loss exposure. Insurers such as Coalition enter Germany to package cyber policies with security services, signaling that risk transfer now complements, rather than replaces, core controls. Price sensitivity drives SME demand for subscription security and cloud-delivered controls to avoid large capital outlays.

Segment Analysis

By Offering: Solutions Dominance with Services Acceleration

Solutions accounted for 67.25% of the Europe cybersecurity market share in 2025, underpinned by integrated platforms that bundle cloud, identity, and network controls into unified consoles. The Europe cybersecurity market size for services, including managed detection and response, is projected to expand at a 13.56% CAGR to 2031 as enterprises offset workforce shortages by outsourcing daily operations. High-growth comes from mid-market firms newly covered under NIS2 that prefer single-subscription service bundles over multi-vendor toolkits.

Managed services providers tailor compliance dashboards that automate evidence collection across the EU’s heterogeneous regulatory regimes. Concurrently, professional-services demand remains steady as large banks and manufacturers architect zero-trust reference models and post-quantum roadmaps. Integrated solution vendors that embed workflow automation and native reporting enjoy cross-sell advantage, while niche point-product suppliers face consolidation pressure.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Deployment Mode: Cloud Leadership Fuels Hybrid Innovation

Cloud deployments represented 56.90% of 2025 revenue as enterprises embraced elasticity and evergreen updates. Hybrid models now register the swiftest 15.03% CAGR because sovereignty rules compel companies to retain sensitive data inside EU borders while still tapping global hyperscaler analytics. The Europe cybersecurity market size for hybrid architectures grows as financial institutions pilot quantum-secure metro networks that keep keys on premises yet route telemetry to analytics engines in sovereign clouds.

On-premise installations persist in defense and public-sector workloads that require full control of hardware. Yet even these environments integrate cloud-based threat intelligence feeds, creating blended topologies. Vendors therefore package identical policy engines across SaaS and appliance form factors so administrators can enforce uniform controls regardless of workload location.

By End-User Industry: BFSI Leadership with Healthcare Momentum

The BFSI segment held 21.10% of the Europe cybersecurity market size in 2025 as DORA compelled banks to formalize vendor oversight and incident drill programs. Investment centers on continuous monitoring and real-time analytics that satisfy regulator reporting within tight timelines. Healthcare spending will advance at a 13.95% CAGR to 2031, driven by ransomware prevalence and NIS2’s explicit inclusion of hospitals and e-health providers.

Financiers adopt adaptive authentication platforms that secure omnichannel banking while reducing user friction—Raiffeisen’s deployment of OneSpan exemplifies PSD2-compatible control at scale. Hospitals, by contrast, prioritize network segmentation and backup immutability to ensure patient-care continuity. Manufacturing, retail, and energy each exhibit double-digit growth as OT-IT convergence and smart-grid rollouts widen cyber-attack surfaces.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User Enterprise Size: Large-Enterprise Scale, SME Uptick

Large enterprises generated 61.50% of 2025 revenue, leveraging their procurement heft to negotiate platform discounts and multi-year managed-service contracts. Nonetheless, the SME cohort posts the strongest 14.42% CAGR because NIS2 expands regulatory scope to businesses previously outside critical-infrastructure categories. The Europe cybersecurity market size for SMEs increases as cloud marketplaces simplify procurement and insurers bundle basic protection with cyber cover.

Vendor usability becomes decisive; dashboards must guide non-specialists through compliance evidence workflows. Meanwhile, large organizations pilot machine-learning enrichment and begin budgeting for post-quantum key rotation strategies that align with the EU’s 2030 cryptography roadmap.

Geography Analysis

Europe’s cybersecurity landscape concentrates revenue in mature digital economies yet shows the fastest percentage growth in digitally intensive mid-tier markets. The United Kingdom retained 22.70% share in 2025 on the strength of its financial-services cluster, 67,300-person talent pool, and GBP 13.56 billion revenue base. Germany constitutes the largest continental contributor, spending EUR 12.64 billion in 2025 with 13.55% annual growth as automotive and machinery leaders modernize OT defenses. 

The Netherlands delivers the highest 12.19% CAGR through 2031, aided by the Amsterdam Internet Exchange and a concentration of Hague-based cyber institutions. France prepares for a USD 14.58 billion market by 2030, propelled by a USD 1.9 billion public quantum-technology program that accelerates cryptography R&D. Southern European and CEE markets face tighter budgets, yet EU structural-fund inflows and cloud adoption stimulate above-average gains. Nordic countries combine advanced digitization with high threat awareness, sustaining premium security spend per capita.

Pan-European policy initiatives reinforce convergence. The Cyber Solidarity Act mandates emergency response coordination, while the EU vulnerability database centralizes disclosures, thereby elevating baseline security maturity. National schemes that subsidize workforce training and encourage sovereign cloud infrastructure further harmonize growth trajectories across diverse economic profiles.