The data shows a significant decline in the number of letters sent in most EU countries. At the same time, the price of sending letters is increasing. The quality of service, although at a high level, is deteriorating. Quality is determined by how long a letter takes to reach its destination.

• Domestic letter mail volumes continued to decline, on average by -5% (Romania excluded; data missing for Norway and Switzerland) across the surveyed countries in 2016 compared to 2015. The volumes decreased in all countries, except for Germany, Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary.
• Domestic priority letter prices rose on average by 3.68% compared to 2015, and by more than 12.63% for priority intra-Europe letters of 20 grams. Sending a 20 gram priority letter domestically cost €0.71 on average, and for an intra-Europe letter the price was €1.18. In purchasing power parities (PPS), the average prices were respectively €0.79 and €1.38 PPS.
• Transit time performance continued to deteriorate for 20 gram letters both domestically and within Europe. On average, 86.1% (domestic D+1, 24 countries provided data) of domestic priority letters were delivered within the next day, and 77.3% (intra-Europe D+3, 23 countries provided data) of intra-Europe letters were delivered within 3 days in 2016.