Eurozone Countries List: All 20 Members Using the Euro

The Eurozone (also called the Euro area) is the group of European Union member states that have adopted the Euro as their official currency. As of 2024, the Eurozone has 20 members. If you build payment processing, currency conversion, or e-commerce applications that serve European customers, understanding which countries use the Euro is essential for correct pricing and checkout flows.

This reference lists every Eurozone member with their ISO codes and Euro adoption dates, explains how the Eurozone relates to the EU, and provides code examples for checking Eurozone membership programmatically.

What Is the Eurozone?

The Eurozone is a monetary union within the European Union where the Euro (EUR) is the sole legal tender. It was established in 1999 when 11 EU member states adopted the Euro for electronic transactions, followed by physical coins and banknotes in 2002. Since then, 9 more countries have joined, bringing the total to 20.

Key facts:

• 20 member countries out of 27 EU members
• Currency: Euro (EUR), symbol: EUR
• Central bank: European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt
• Monetary policy: Set by the ECB for all Eurozone members
• Not all EU members use EUR: 7 EU countries retain their own currencies

Quick Access with Code

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
 
// Get all 20 Eurozone member codes
const eurozoneCountries = membership.getMembers('Eurozone');
// ['AT', 'BE', 'CY', 'DE', 'EE', 'ES', 'FI', 'FR', 'GR', 'HR',
//  'IE', 'IT', 'LT', 'LU', 'LV', 'MT', 'NL', 'PT', 'SI', 'SK']
 
console.log(eurozoneCountries.length); // 20
 
// Check if a specific country uses the Euro
membership.isEurozone('DE'); // true (Germany)
membership.isEurozone('SE'); // false (Sweden uses SEK)
membership.isEurozone('GB'); // false (UK uses GBP)

All 20 Eurozone Members

The 11 founding members (1999) were: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Greece joined in 2001, and the most recent member is Croatia, which adopted the Euro in January 2023.

EU Members NOT in the Eurozone

Seven EU member states have not adopted the Euro:

[!NOTE] Denmark has a formal opt-out from the Euro. The other 6 countries are technically required to adopt the Euro eventually (as part of their EU accession treaties), but there is no deadline, and several have no near-term plans to join.

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
import { currency } from '@koshmoney/countries/currency';
import { country } from '@koshmoney/countries';
 
// Find EU members that are NOT in the Eurozone
const euMembers = membership.getMembers('EU');
const nonEurozone = euMembers.filter((code) => !membership.isEurozone(code));
 
nonEurozone.map((code) => ({
  country: country.toName(code),
  currency: currency.getCurrencyCode(code),
}));
// [
//   { country: 'Bulgaria', currency: 'BGN' },
//   { country: 'Czech Republic', currency: 'CZK' },
//   { country: 'Denmark', currency: 'DKK' },
//   { country: 'Hungary', currency: 'HUF' },
//   { country: 'Poland', currency: 'PLN' },
//   { country: 'Romania', currency: 'RON' },
//   { country: 'Sweden', currency: 'SEK' },
// ]

Eurozone vs EU vs SEPA

These three groupings serve different purposes and have different members:

A critical distinction: SEPA enables EUR bank transfers in 36 countries, but only 20 of those actually use EUR as their official currency. A Polish bank can send and receive EUR via SEPA, but Poland’s official currency is the Zloty (PLN).

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
 
// Poland: EU and SEPA but not Eurozone
membership.getMemberships('PL');
// { EU: true, SEPA: true, EEA: true, Eurozone: false, Schengen: true }
 
// France: member of everything
membership.getMemberships('FR');
// { EU: true, SEPA: true, EEA: true, Eurozone: true, Schengen: true }
 
// UK: only SEPA (post-Brexit)
membership.getMemberships('GB');
// { EU: false, SEPA: true, EEA: false, Eurozone: false, Schengen: false }

Why Developers Need Eurozone Checks

Dynamic Currency Display

When showing prices to European users, you need to know whether to display EUR or a local currency:

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
import { currency } from '@koshmoney/countries/currency';
 
function getDisplayCurrency(countryCode: string) {
  if (membership.isEurozone(countryCode)) {
    return { code: 'EUR', symbol: '\u20ac', name: 'Euro' };
  }
  return currency.getCurrency(countryCode);
}
 
getDisplayCurrency('DE'); // { code: 'EUR', symbol: '\u20ac', name: 'Euro' }
getDisplayCurrency('SE'); // { code: 'SEK', symbol: 'kr', name: 'Swedish Krona' }
getDisplayCurrency('PL'); // { code: 'PLN', symbol: 'z\u0142', name: 'Polish Zloty' }

Checkout Flow Logic

For e-commerce platforms, Eurozone membership determines whether to show a EUR price or convert to local currency:

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
import { currency } from '@koshmoney/countries/currency';
 
function getPricingStrategy(countryCode: string) {
  if (membership.isEurozone(countryCode)) {
    return { currency: 'EUR', strategy: 'direct', fxNeeded: false };
  }
 
  if (membership.isSEPA(countryCode)) {
    // SEPA country but not Eurozone -- can accept EUR via SEPA but local currency differs
    const local = currency.getCurrencyCode(countryCode);
    return { currency: local || 'EUR', strategy: 'local_preferred', fxNeeded: local !== 'EUR' };
  }
 
  // Non-European country
  const local = currency.getCurrencyCode(countryCode);
  return { currency: local || 'USD', strategy: 'international', fxNeeded: true };
}
 
getPricingStrategy('DE');
// { currency: 'EUR', strategy: 'direct', fxNeeded: false }
 
getPricingStrategy('SE');
// { currency: 'SEK', strategy: 'local_preferred', fxNeeded: true }
 
getPricingStrategy('US');
// { currency: 'USD', strategy: 'international', fxNeeded: true }

VAT Handling

While VAT applies to all EU members (not just Eurozone), the currency in which VAT is calculated depends on Eurozone membership. Eurozone VAT is always in EUR; non-Eurozone EU members calculate VAT in their local currency:

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
 
function getVATCurrency(countryCode: string): string | null {
  if (!membership.isEU(countryCode)) return null; // No EU VAT
  if (membership.isEurozone(countryCode)) return 'EUR';
  // Non-Eurozone EU member: VAT in local currency
  return null; // Use local currency from currency module
}

Non-EU Countries Using the Euro

Several countries and territories outside the EU use the Euro, either through formal monetary agreements or unilateral adoption:

• Monaco (MC) — monetary agreement with France
• San Marino (SM) — monetary agreement with Italy
• Vatican City (VA) — monetary agreement with Italy
• Andorra (AD) — monetary agreement with the EU
• Kosovo and Montenegro — unilateral adoption (not recognized in ISO 3166-1 for Kosovo)

These countries use the Euro but are NOT in the Eurozone (which is strictly an EU institution). The membership.isEurozone() function correctly returns false for these countries:

import { membership } from '@koshmoney/countries/membership';
 
membership.isEurozone('MC'); // false (Monaco uses EUR but is not in the Eurozone)
membership.isEurozone('SM'); // false (San Marino uses EUR but is not in the Eurozone)
membership.isEurozone('AD'); // false (Andorra uses EUR but is not in the Eurozone)

[!TIP] If you need to check whether a country uses EUR as its currency (regardless of Eurozone membership), use the currency module instead: currency.getCurrencyCode('MC') === 'EUR'.

Common Mistakes

Assuming all EU countries use the Euro. Only 20 of 27 EU members are in the Eurozone. Showing EUR prices to users in Poland, Sweden, or Denmark without a currency selector is a poor user experience.

Confusing Eurozone with SEPA. SEPA is a payment network for EUR transfers. A country can participate in SEPA without using EUR as its official currency. The UK is in SEPA but uses GBP.

Ignoring non-EU Euro users. Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, and Andorra all use the Euro but are not EU or Eurozone members. If you only check isEurozone(), you will miss these.

Hardcoding the Eurozone list. Croatia joined in 2023. Bulgaria and Romania are candidates for future adoption. Use a maintained library to avoid stale data.

Summary

The Eurozone has 20 EU member states that use the Euro as their official currency. It is a subset of the EU (27 members) and a subset of SEPA (36 members). For developers, Eurozone membership is the key check for currency display, pricing, and VAT calculation logic. The @koshmoney/countries library provides membership.isEurozone() and membership.getMembers('Eurozone') for reliable programmatic checks.

Related

• EU Country Codes List — All 27 EU member state codes
• SEPA Countries List — All 36 SEPA members
• Schengen Countries List — All 27 Schengen members
• Membership API — Full membership module reference
• Currency API — Currency lookups by country