Gallup 2026: Europe is the lowest-engaged workforce region globally for a second year

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 report puts European employee engagement at 12% – the lowest of any global region for the second consecutive year. The lowest country scores cluster around 7-10%: Croatia and Poland 7%, France and Switzerland 8%, Spain 10%, the UK 10%. Despite that, 49% of European workers report “thriving” wellbeing (against a 34% global average), and 57% say it is a good time to find a local job.

Why this matters

The engagement-wellbeing paradox is the most actionable finding for European employers and remote workers alike: European employees report they feel better than the global average, but they are less invested in their actual work. That gap suggests a workforce that has used flexible and hybrid arrangements to protect their lives outside work, while disengaging emotionally from the work itself.

For remote workers and remote-first employers, the data is double-edged. It supports the case that flexibility delivers genuine wellbeing benefits. But it also pushes back on the simple “remote-first equals higher engagement” narrative – engagement is its own variable, and Europe is the cautionary case. Employers betting on remote-first as a retention strategy need to think about how to make remote work emotionally engaging, not just operationally tolerable.

What to watch: whether the engagement-wellbeing gap narrows in the 2027 report, and which European countries break the pattern. The Nordic baseline (typically higher than the European average) and the Mediterranean engagement floor make for interesting sub-regional analysis.