To choose an EU public-sector market, a supplier needs to know which buyers purchase its offer, how often relevant work appears and whether the addressable contracts fit its capacity. A headline “sector share” cannot answer those questions without a clear dataset and classification method.
This guide shows how to build a sector view from published procurement data. It does not publish a measured EU-wide ranking: no reproducible dataset supporting a current sector percentage is provided here.
Define what you mean by spending
Keep estimated tender value, awarded contract value, framework maximum and actual payments separate. A contract notice describes intended procurement; an award identifies a reported result; neither automatically establishes money paid.
The Open Contracting Data Standard separates tender, award, contract and implementation information. Use the distinction in your own analysis, even when the source uses a different schema.
For a sales decision, count distinct relevant procedures or lots alongside comparable values. A few large infrastructure awards can dominate value while offering little addressable work for a specialist services supplier.
Build a sector map from the offer
The following are starting points for review, not exhaustive code lists or measured shares. Validate exact codes in the official CPV vocabulary.
| Commercial sector | Candidate CPV branches | Boundary to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | 45 construction work; 71 related professional services | Separate building work from design and inspection |
| Healthcare | 33 medical equipment and pharmaceuticals; 85 health/social services | Health-sector buyers also purchase IT, facilities and construction |
| IT | 48 software; 72 IT services; relevant parts of 30 equipment | Division 30 also includes non-IT office equipment |
| Transport | 34 transport equipment; 60 transport services; relevant parts of 63 | Do not mix fleet purchases with logistics contracts automatically |
| Energy | Relevant parts of 09 energy products, 31 electrical equipment, 65 utilities | Separate commodity supply, equipment and network services |
| Professional services | Relevant parts of 79 business services and 71 technical services | Use the actual deliverable, not every code in the division |
A buyer-sector analysis and a purchased-product analysis answer different questions. “University spending” includes many CPV branches; “IT spending” crosses many buyer types. Keep both dimensions where the evidence permits.
Set a reproducible cohort
Write down countries, source portals, period, date basis, notice stage and the exact included codes. Specify whether classification uses the main code, additional codes or manual review.
Choose one attribution rule for multi-sector records. You can assign each lot once to a primary sector, or report overlapping categories and explicitly say the shares are not additive. Never present overlapping totals as parts of one market.
Deduplicate versions, retain lot identifiers and flag uncertain buyer matches. Record how missing value, currency, tax and multi-supplier awards are handled. Keep the source identifiers or export so another analyst can reproduce the totals.
Read trends with the missing data visible
A larger observed total can reflect newly collected sources, improved value disclosure or a small number of large projects. Compare like-for-like cohorts before inferring growth.
Illustrative case: one year has 40 usable healthcare award values and the next has 100. A higher total does not establish higher healthcare demand until the change in coverage is examined. Show both the total record count and usable-value count.
The Commission's public procurement scoreboard explains that its indicators provide a partial picture and require country-specific interpretation. Do not apply an EU-wide headline directly to the market your team can serve.
Turn the analysis into a commercial choice
For each candidate segment, record relevant buyer count, distinct opportunities, value completeness, lot scale, route to market and delivery constraints. Choose a small buyer cohort to investigate before expanding coverage.
Use the healthcare playbook and education playbook for buyer-specific questions. Use buyer intelligence to investigate awards and procurement analytics metrics to define a leadership report.
Reviewed 13 September 2026. Earlier unsourced sector-share and growth-rate claims have been removed. Future numerical updates require a dated dataset, explicit cohort and reproducible calculation.