However, unlike the United States, there are far fewer Dividend Aristocrats in Europe who have increased the dividend every year for at least 25 years in a row.

Dividendhike.com discovered more than 20 stocks in Europe with a rock-solid track record, including Switzerland's Nestlé, which has increased its dividend for the 25th consecutive year this year.

The other European Dividend Aristocrats come mainly from the United Kingdom and, like Nestlé, from Switzerland. France also has two real Dividend Aristocrats. The other European Dividend Aristocrats come mainly from the United Kingdom and, like Nestlé, from Switzerland. France also has two real Dividend Aristocrats and Scandinavia delivers some true Aristocrats, almost all of which come from a handful of sectors, including Health Care.

EUROPEAN DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS | NESTLÉ, ROCHE, SANOFI
Below we have listed some European Dividend Aristocrats with confirmed track records that can be found on the company's website. A good example here is Roche, the big pharmaceutical company from Switzerland. We also have a large number of different companies from Europe with outstanding dividend track records that we will add later, when we have confirmed dividend records. For now we stick with the well known bigger names with a record of 25 or more years in a row with a dividend hike.

• Roche (Switzerland) 34 consecutive years of increased dividends
• Sanofi (France) 27 consecutive years
• Novartis (Switzerland) 27 consecutive years
• Nestlé (Switzerland) 25 consecutive years

As said many more companies from Europe have raised the dividend for decades, even with the many cuts reported in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. A great example here is cosmetics giant L'Oréal with a pulled dividend hike last year, ending more than 30 straight years of increases. This also happened to several other well known European Dividend Aristocrats.

We will follow up this post in 2022 with a new European Dividend Aristocrats List, including less known smaller companies from the UK, Sweden, France and other companies from Europe. Unlike in Europa, the United States has a large number of true Dividend Aristocrats with a dividend hiked for more than 25 consecutive years. On dividendhike.com we always show the track records for these stocks as soon as the dividend is raised. On the frontpage we have listed the top-10 Dividend Aristocrats in the US based on the latest dividend hike. Most Aristocrats hike their dividend annually. The latest news can easily be found by clicking on the Aristocrats in the 'Index' menu.