Search how long shipping from China to the UK or Germany takes and you get express couriers at 3 to 7 days, air freight at 4 to 8 and sea freight at a month. None of those is a parcel on a China line, which is how most orders to a European customer actually travel.

Measured on tracked parcels, the median from the carrier's first scan to the delivered scan ran from 10.1 days to the Netherlands to 14.0 days to Ireland, with the UK at 11.0 and Germany at 12.1. The days spent in China are about the same whatever the destination. What changes from country to country is the last mile.

This guide covers:

• Measured delivery times from China to the UK and 10 EU countries, median and slow end
• Where the days go, leg by leg, and which leg changes by country
• How many orders land within 14 days of the order, by country
• Why the UK and Spain tracking often stops before the door
• What delivery time to show customers in each country

Delivery times from China by country: 10 to 14 days

Measured on every parcel with a first carrier scan from 1 April to 31 July 2026, shipped to the UK or the EU, checked on 4 October so each one had at least 65 days to arrive. Days are calendar days from the carrier's first scan to the delivered scan. The second figure is the slow end: 9 in 10 parcels arrived within it.

• Netherlands: median 10.1 days, 9 in 10 within 14.4
• UK: 11.0 days, 9 in 10 within 16.0
• Belgium: 11.1 days, 9 in 10 within 15.1
• Italy: 11.2 days, 9 in 10 within 17.2
• Denmark: 11.8 days, 9 in 10 within 16.0
• Austria: 12.0 days, 9 in 10 within 16.9
• Germany: 12.1 days, 9 in 10 within 17.1
• Spain: 12.1 days, 9 in 10 within 17.7
• France: 12.8 days, 9 in 10 within 17.2
• Sweden: 13.1 days, 9 in 10 within 18.8
• Ireland: 14.0 days, 9 in 10 within 17.0

Across the EU as a whole the median was 12.1 days, with 9 in 10 within 17.1. For comparison, US parcels in the same window ran a median of 11.1 days, with 9 in 10 within 18.0. So Europe runs about a day slower than the US at the median, but its slow end is a little tighter.

These are carrier times. Your customer's clock starts at the order, which adds about a day at the median: from the order, the Netherlands ran 11.0 days, the UK 11.8, Germany 13.2 and Ireland 14.7.

Where the days go: the last mile decides the country

A parcel from China to Europe goes through four legs, each with its own scan. Here is the median for each leg, measured separately, across the 11 countries.

• In China, first scan to departure: 5.1 to 6.2 days. Sorting, line haul to the airport, waiting for the flight. About the same for every destination.
• Flight and arrival: 1.1 to 2.5 days, up to the customs scan.
• Customs: 0.4 to 1.5 days. The UK was quickest at 0.4. No country took more than about a day and a half at the median.
• Last mile: 3.0 to 6.7 days, from the local delivery company taking the parcel to the delivered scan. The Netherlands was quickest at 3.0, Ireland slowest at 6.7 and Sweden 6.1.

Each leg is a median over its own parcels, so the four do not add up to the totals above.

That is the useful part for planning. If your Irish or Swedish customers wait longer than your Dutch ones, nothing you change in China closes the gap. The local delivery network sets it. For a full breakdown of the legs, see how long shipping from China takes.

How many orders arrive within 14 days

Two weeks from the order is about where "where is my order" emails start. On parcels that got a delivered scan, the share delivered within 14 days of the order ran from 81% for the Netherlands and 72% for the UK to 59% for Germany, 55% for France and 42% for Ireland. The US, for comparison, was 62%.

So one delivery promise for "Europe" might be right for some countries and wrong for others. A store that tells every European customer "7 to 14 days" is close for the Netherlands and short by several days for Ireland, Sweden and France.

The UK and Spain: the tracking stops, not the parcel

On most European destinations, 97% to 99% of parcels ended with a delivered scan. Two did not:

• UK: 82.5% got a delivered scan
• Spain: 69.8%
• EU as a whole: 95.1%

Almost every UK parcel without a delivered scan shows "with the local carrier" as its last status, and most Spanish ones do too. The parcel was handed to the local delivery company and that company's delivered scan never came back to the first carrier's page. The parcel most likely arrived. You just cannot see it from the tracking you have.

That matters in two places. Your customer sees a page that stops at the handover, which looks like a lost parcel. And if they dispute the order, you have no delivered scan to show. The fix is the same for both: save the local carrier's tracking number and send it to the customer. More on that in the guide to proof of delivery for parcels from China.

What most guides get wrong about Europe

Most pages that answer this question are written by freight forwarders. They quote express couriers (3 to 7 days), air freight (4 to 8 days), rail (18 to 19 days) and sea (25 to 40 days). Those are real, and they are for pallets and couriers, not a tracked parcel on a China line.

Tracking sites that measure parcels usually give one wide range per country, such as 6 to 19 days, mixing untracked postal services in. Two more things these figures leave out:

• Business days. Many quotes are in business days. Customers count calendar days, so "6 to 12 business days" is about 8 to 16 calendar days.
• Q4. Every figure here is from April to July. Peak season stretches all of them: last year the median US parcel ordered in the second week of December took about 6 days longer than in early November. The dates are in the guide to Q4 shipping dates from China.

One fact that cuts against the usual story: the UK, the country many sellers think of as hardest, was the second fastest destination in this data at the median. If your UK times are slow, the line is the first thing to check, not the country.

How to check your own European times

You need two to three months of orders that are at least six weeks old, so the slow parcels have landed.

1. Export orders with the country, the order date, the tracking number and the delivered date.
2. Work out the days from order to delivered for each, and take the median per country, not one figure for Europe.
3. Count the share delivered within 14 days per country, and compare it with the delivery promise you show there.
4. Count the share with no delivered scan per country. If the UK or Spain is low, check the local carrier's tracking before treating parcels as lost.
5. Check which line each country ships on. A slow country on a slower line might just need a different line.

What to do

• Show delivery times per country, not for "Europe". A Dutch and an Irish customer are waiting for different things.
• Promise the slow end, not the median. For most EU countries, 9 in 10 parcels landed within about 17 days of the first scan.
• Send the local carrier's tracking number for the UK and Spain, where the first carrier's page often stops at the handover.
• Look at the last mile first when one country is slow. Nothing upstream changes it.
• Plan Q4 separately. These figures are from April to July; December orders take days longer.
• Check the EU fee changes. The €3 duty and the €2 handling fee change what an EU order costs to land, not how long it takes. They are covered in the guide to the new EU customs fees.

How we handle this at Commercive

Commercive is your all in one sourcing and fulfilment partner. We ship to the UK and Europe from China on frontier lines like YunExpress, Yanwen and 4PX, and the line is chosen per product and per destination.

Our dashboard shows every order's line, first carrier scan, local carrier and delivered scan, so you can run the per-country check above on your own orders without an export. Our measured delivery times by line and country are public on our shipping status page.

If you're currently running a brand, just give us the product and your daily order volume. We'll get you a quote within the next 24 hours to hold up against what you're paying today.

How we measured this. Every parcel we shipped to the UK and the EU with a first carrier scan between 1 April and 31 July 2026, across all our lines, measured on 4 October 2026 so each parcel had at least 65 days. EU parcels travelled almost all on one frontier line; UK parcels on two main lines. Times are calendar days from the carrier's first scan, or from the order where stated, to the first delivered scan, on parcels that got one. Countries with smaller samples in the window are not shown, and the smaller countries above (Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Ireland, Italy) carry wider error. Leg medians are measured on their own parcels and do not add up to the total. For the UK and Spain, the medians cover the 7 to 8 in 10 parcels whose delivered scan reached our tracking.

How long does shipping from China to the UK take?

On tracked parcel lines, the median from the carrier's first scan to the delivered scan was 11.0 days, and 9 in 10 parcels arrived within 16.0 days, measured on parcels shipped April to July 2026. From the customer's order, the median was 11.8 days.

How long does shipping from China to Germany take?

The median was 12.1 days from the first carrier scan, with 9 in 10 within 17.1 days. From the order it was 13.2 days, and 59% of orders landed within 14 days of the order.

Which European country gets parcels from China fastest?

In this data, the Netherlands, at a median of 10.1 days, with 9 in 10 within 14.4. Ireland was slowest at 14.0 days, almost entirely because of a longer last mile.

Why does my UK tracking stop at "with the local carrier"?

The parcel has been handed to the UK delivery company, often under a new tracking number, and its delivered scan does not always come back to the first carrier's page. It has most likely arrived. Look up the local carrier's number on that carrier's own site.

Is shipping from China to Europe slower than to the US?

By about a day at the median: 12.1 days for the EU against 11.1 for the US, on parcels shipped April to July 2026. The slow end runs the other way: 9 in 10 EU parcels landed within 17.1 days against 18.0 for the US.