Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the Statistical office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
F1: Social indicators - Methodology and development, relations with users
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
9 April 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
9 April 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
27 February 2025
3.1. Data description
Culture statistics cover many aspects of economic and social life. According to the Europe 2020 strategy, the role of culture is crucial for achieving the goal of a 'smart, sustainable and inclusive' growth.
Statistics on cultural employment show the contribution of cultural employment to the overall employment and present different characteristics of persons employed in this field of economy. It should be specified that cultural employment refers only to the main job of the workers.
Cultural employment statistics are derived from the data collected by the European Labour Force Survey (see EU-LFS metadata). The EU-LFS is the main source of information about the situation and trends on the labour market in the European Union.
All the cultural employment data published in the tables have been compiled by Eurostat using the calculation and estimation method described in section 18.5, in particular as concerns the available levels of NACE and ISCO codes. As a result, in some cases, slight differences between data published by Eurostat and data calculated at national level may appear.
The final report of the European Statistical System Network on Culture (ESS-net Culture final report 2012, in particular pp. 129-226) deals with the methodology to be applied to cultural statistics, including the scope of the 'cultural economic activities' and 'cultural occupations', based on two reference classifications:
the NACE classification (‘Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes’) which classifies the employer’s main activity, and
the ISCO classification (‘International Standard Classification of Occupations’) which classifies occupations.
Results from the EU-LFS, obtained by cross-tabulating ISCO and NACE cultural codes, allow to characterize cultural employment by some core social variables (sex, age, educational attainment) and by selected labour market characteristics (self-employment, full-time work, permanent jobs and persons with one job only).
In 2016, an extension of the cultural scope was agreed upon by the Eurostat Working Group 'Culture statistics' and implemented after in cultural employment statistics for reference years 2011 onwards.
3.2. Classification system
The classifications used to produce statistics on cultural employment are: NACE Rev.2 for economic activity (sector of employment), ISCO-08 for occupation, and ISCED 2011 for educational attainment level.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Cultural employment statistics cover all economic sectors and occupations relevant for culture, as defined by the ESSnet-Culture and the Eurostat Working Group 'Culture statistics'.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The ESS-net Culture final report 2012 proposes the combination of two approaches of the cultural employment: on the one hand, it covers employment pertaining to economic activities in the cultural domain, and, on the other, it examines employment in cultural occupations. The definition of cultural employment refers then to all persons employed having either a cultural profession, or working in the cultural sector.
It should be reminded that the concept of employment used in the EU-LFS comprises persons aged 15 years and more who were in one of the following categories:
persons who during the reference week worked for at least one hour for pay or profit or family gain.
persons who were not at work during the reference week but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent.
Cultural employment is defined by crossing two classifications: NACE (economic activities) and ISCO (occupations). As shown in Figure 1 below, every person working in a cultural sector should be taken into account, whether her/his occupation is cultural (part I in Figure 1) or not (part III). Similarly, any cultural occupation should enter in the cultural employment statistics, even if exercised in non-cultural activities (part II, e.g. a designer in the automobile industry). Therefore, cultural employment is measured by the sum I+II+III:
Figure: Cultural employment at the intersection of NACE and ISCO classifications
Cultural employment data and indicators relate to individuals aged 15 years and more.
3.6. Statistical population
The EU-LFS results cover the total population usually residing in Member States, except for persons living in collective or institutional households. Questions relating to labour market status are restricted to persons in the age group '15 years or older'.
EU Member States, EFTA countries (except for Liechtenstein), the United Kingdom (until 2019 data), Candidate Countries (Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye). Data for Cyprus refer only to the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Since 2014, data for France include also the French overseas departments (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion), with the exception of Mayotte.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Statistics on the aggregate 'Cultural employment' cover data from 2011 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Cultural employment data are presented in thousands of persons and as percentages of given populations, e.g. percentages of cultural employment for variables used for analysis (sex, age, etc.).
Annual estimates of cultural employment are derived from the annual data of the EU-LFS survey.
The EU-LFS is designed as a continuous quarterly survey with interviews spread uniformly over all weeks of a quarter. The reference week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. By convention, the first week of the year is the week including the first Thursday, and the 1st reference quarter consists of 13 consecutive weeks starting from that week.
Annual data encompass the four reference quarters in the year and correspond to quarterly results averaged through the year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The EU-LFS is based on European legislation since 1973. Its implementation is governed by legislative acts of the Council and Parliament, as well as of the Commission. The principal legal act is the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), and its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240, which came into force on 1 January 2021.
These are main regulations with provisions on definitions, design, survey characteristics and data transmission and dissemination. For more details on the regulations, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Main features and legal basis.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
EU-LFS microdata as received by Eurostat from the National Statistical Institutes do not contain any administrative information such as names or addresses that would allow direct identification. Access to this microdata is nevertheless strictly controlled and limited to specified Eurostat staff.
After data treatment, records are aggregated for further use. Each dataset is complemented by the transmission of metadata, in particular confidentiality/reliability limits. These limits establish estimated sizes of population groups below which figures have to be suppressed or published with warning. Aggregated data published in the online database follow these confidentiality/reliability rules, and data are blanked or flagged according to the confidentiality/reliability limits.
For a detailed description of methods and concepts used, as well as for other documents related to the EU-LFS, please consult the EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) webpage.
Culture is one of Europe's greatest assets: it is a source of values and identity and creates a sense of belonging. It also contributes to well-being, social cohesion and inclusion. The cultural and creative sectors can trigger economic growth, job creation and international trade.
This is why culture is gaining importance in the EU. Article 167 of the Treaty of Lisbon states that the EU must contribute to the 'flowering of the cultures of the EU Member States while respecting their national and regional diversity and simultaneously bringing the common heritage to the fore'.
The EU supports these objectives through the Creative Europe programme and several policy actions included in the Work Plan for Culture (2023-2026). The plan, adopted by the Council of Culture Ministers of the EU, sets out the current main priorities for European cooperation in cultural policymaking: empowering the cultural and creative sectors, enhancing cultural participation and the role of culture in society, unleashing the power of culture and strengthening the cultural dimension of the EU external relations. According to the document, implementing the Work Plan for Culture (2023-2026) should also be supported by the optimised use of quality data and statistics.
In this context, EU-LFS results are used by a number of Directorates-General of the Commission mainly for measurement and monitoring of policy agenda purposes.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The development of culture statistics is continuously discussed with the European Commission policymakers and with the representatives of the countries in the Eurostat Expert group 'Culture statistics'.
12.3. Completeness
Starting with the 2021 data, LFS data from EU Member States, EFTA and Candidate Countries are provided in NACE 3-digit and ISCO 4-digit granularity. The granularity of historical data is presented in Annex 1. Note that historical data with lower granularity were subject to the estimation. This estimation process is described in Annex 2.
As concerns cultural employment statistics, the accuracy of data is impacted by the availability of data at 3-digits for NACE and 3-digits for ISCO. The estimations for the countries providing NACE 2-digits are derived from the available NACE and ISCO 3-digit data from other EU countries, as outlined in Annex. These estimations apply to data until 2020, as from 2021, with the introduction of the new Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), all the countries provide data at 3-digits for NACE.
The information about the NACE and ISCO codes included in the theoretical scope for culture statistics, as well as NACE and ISCO codes included in the operational definition applied for compilation based on EU-LFS is available in Annex 3 below: "Theoretical and operational scope of data on cultural employment".
The comparability of cultural employment data is influenced by data availability at the most detailed NACE (3 digits) and ISCO (4 digits) levels. Estimations are made for countries that provide data with lower levels of granularity.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Breaks in series in data on cultural employment occur in some countries for some reference years and are related to the following situations:
the population figures used for the population adjustment are revised at intervals on the basis of new population censuses (however, it is common practice to disseminate basic recalculated series);
the reference period may not remain the same for a given country due to the transition to a quarterly continuous survey;
in order to improve the quality of results, some countries may change the content or order of their questionnaire;
countries may modify their survey designs.
The list of breaks in series induced by the census revisions, transition to continuous quarterly survey, re-design of survey or change in the methodology imputed to data on cultural employment is provided in Annex 4 - Inventory of breaks in series.
BREXIT: New EU-27_2020 aggregate
Due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union, a new aggregate, (EU-27_2020), has been calculated from February 2020 for the entire time series.
Please note that after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union on 31 January 2020, not only the new EU aggregate (EU-27_2020) is compiled, but also some slight differences (comparing with data calculated with the UK as EU Member State) are noticed in data for countries missing sufficient NACE and ISCO details, where estimations are done based on countries providing data sufficiently detailed.
For data related to the old aggregate EU-28, please refer to the Dedicated Section on information on data under Cultural employment.
For cultural employment statistics, the EU-LFS is the only data source used as it allows crossing economic activities (via NACE) with occupations (via ISCO).
Cultural employment data are revised following the revision of the EU-LFS results.
17.2. Data revision - practice
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.
Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.
Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability for certain countries. They are replaced with final data in connection with the publication of next reference period. All the revisions affecting the source data between the successive rounds of updates of cultural indicators (year t and year t+1) are taken into account in the round of updates t+1.
Annex 5 below lists the major revisions of LFS data impacting the results for cultural employment.
Data on cultural employment are also checked and validated for internal and external consistency before publishing.
18.5. Data compilation
Cultural employment: General overview
The statistical concept of cultural employment is derived from the methodology proposed by the European Statistical System (ESS) Network on Culture in the ESSnet-Culture final report (2012).
As the ESSnet-Culture final report explains, one can speak of 'cultural employment' in three types of situations (see Figure 2):
member of the workforce (a) hold a cultural occupation and (b) work in the cultural sector (e.g. a ballet dancer employed by a ballet company or a journalist working for a daily newspaper) — field I;
member of the workforce hold a cultural occupation outside the cultural sector (e.g. a designer in the automobile industry) — field II.
member of the workforce hold a non-cultural occupation in the cultural sector (e.g. an accountant in a publishing house) — field III.
Figure: Cultural employment at the intersection of NACE and ISCO classifications
Economic activities (NACE)
Cultural
Non-cultural
Occupations (ISCO)
Cultural
I
II
Non-cultural
III
IV
Cultural employment is therefore measured by the sum I+II+III.
A list of all NACE and ISCO codes to be taken in cultural scope was suggested by the ESSnet Culture final report (2012) and referred to the most refined levels of the classifications (4 digits for NACE and 4 digits for ISCO). However, every ISCO or NACE code was not simply either fully cultural or not culture-related at all. There were some codes which partially represented cultural occupations or economic activities at this lowest level of disaggregation (e.g. NACE 73.11 Advertising agencies or ISCO 1222 Advertising and public relations managers).
The current theoretical definition used by Eurostat for the compilation of employment but also business statistics identify the number of NACE and ISCO codes which are fully cultural at the lowest 4-digit level of both classifications (see Annex 6).
However, the source of data for cultural employment — the EU-LFS database managed by Eurostat — contains a maximum of 3 digits for NACE and 4 digits for ISCO. Taking into account this limitation in EU-LFS, the methodology and calculation algorithm for the derivation of data on cultural employment was built on the optimal configuration of 3-digit of NACE and 4-digits of ISCO and according to the conceptual cultural matrix NACE*ISCO as exposed in Figure.
It must be noted that some adjustments had to be made in the algorithm because among the NACE 3-digit codes retained for the definition, some are composed of codes fully cultural (e.g. NACE 59) and some comprise not-cultural elements. This is the case, e.g. of NACE 58.2 'Software publishing' containing cultural code 58.21 'Publishing of video games' and not cultural code 58.29 'Other software publishing'. Following the conservative approach and based on the analysis of the contribution of not-cultural NACE 4-digit economic activities to code 58.2, this code was excluded from the operational scope applied for cultural employment based on the EU-LFS data.
The complete list of the codes in the theoretical and operational definition used for the compilation of data based on EU-LFS is provided in Annex 3 (see point 13.1).
The proposed methodology is conservative. It tends to underestimate the values for two reasons: exclusion of partly cultural NACE 3-digit codes and estimation of values for countries with different than 3*4 profiles. However, employees in partly cultural detailed NACE3D/ISCO4D categories are not systematically excluded due to the cross-tabulation method. For example, employees with a partly cultural occupation code are included in the operational scope if they are also employed in a cultural sector.
18.6. Adjustment
The EU-LFS annual results of quarterly variables are produced as simple averages of the quarterly results. Instead, annual results of annual variables are derived directly.
Please also refer to point 12.3 and Annex 2: "Detailed description of the estimation algorithm".
No notes.
lfst_hh_esms - Households statistics - LFS series
lfsq_esms - LFS series - detailed quarterly survey results (from 1998 onwards)
Culture statistics cover many aspects of economic and social life. According to the Europe 2020 strategy, the role of culture is crucial for achieving the goal of a 'smart, sustainable and inclusive' growth.
Statistics on cultural employment show the contribution of cultural employment to the overall employment and present different characteristics of persons employed in this field of economy. It should be specified that cultural employment refers only to the main job of the workers.
Cultural employment statistics are derived from the data collected by the European Labour Force Survey (see EU-LFS metadata). The EU-LFS is the main source of information about the situation and trends on the labour market in the European Union.
All the cultural employment data published in the tables have been compiled by Eurostat using the calculation and estimation method described in section 18.5, in particular as concerns the available levels of NACE and ISCO codes. As a result, in some cases, slight differences between data published by Eurostat and data calculated at national level may appear.
The final report of the European Statistical System Network on Culture (ESS-net Culture final report 2012, in particular pp. 129-226) deals with the methodology to be applied to cultural statistics, including the scope of the 'cultural economic activities' and 'cultural occupations', based on two reference classifications:
the NACE classification (‘Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes’) which classifies the employer’s main activity, and
the ISCO classification (‘International Standard Classification of Occupations’) which classifies occupations.
Results from the EU-LFS, obtained by cross-tabulating ISCO and NACE cultural codes, allow to characterize cultural employment by some core social variables (sex, age, educational attainment) and by selected labour market characteristics (self-employment, full-time work, permanent jobs and persons with one job only).
In 2016, an extension of the cultural scope was agreed upon by the Eurostat Working Group 'Culture statistics' and implemented after in cultural employment statistics for reference years 2011 onwards.
27 February 2025
The ESS-net Culture final report 2012 proposes the combination of two approaches of the cultural employment: on the one hand, it covers employment pertaining to economic activities in the cultural domain, and, on the other, it examines employment in cultural occupations. The definition of cultural employment refers then to all persons employed having either a cultural profession, or working in the cultural sector.
It should be reminded that the concept of employment used in the EU-LFS comprises persons aged 15 years and more who were in one of the following categories:
persons who during the reference week worked for at least one hour for pay or profit or family gain.
persons who were not at work during the reference week but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent.
Cultural employment is defined by crossing two classifications: NACE (economic activities) and ISCO (occupations). As shown in Figure 1 below, every person working in a cultural sector should be taken into account, whether her/his occupation is cultural (part I in Figure 1) or not (part III). Similarly, any cultural occupation should enter in the cultural employment statistics, even if exercised in non-cultural activities (part II, e.g. a designer in the automobile industry). Therefore, cultural employment is measured by the sum I+II+III:
Figure: Cultural employment at the intersection of NACE and ISCO classifications
Cultural employment data and indicators relate to individuals aged 15 years and more.
The EU-LFS results cover the total population usually residing in Member States, except for persons living in collective or institutional households. Questions relating to labour market status are restricted to persons in the age group '15 years or older'.
EU Member States, EFTA countries (except for Liechtenstein), the United Kingdom (until 2019 data), Candidate Countries (Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye). Data for Cyprus refer only to the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Since 2014, data for France include also the French overseas departments (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion), with the exception of Mayotte.
Annual estimates of cultural employment are derived from the annual data of the EU-LFS survey.
The EU-LFS is designed as a continuous quarterly survey with interviews spread uniformly over all weeks of a quarter. The reference week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. By convention, the first week of the year is the week including the first Thursday, and the 1st reference quarter consists of 13 consecutive weeks starting from that week.
Annual data encompass the four reference quarters in the year and correspond to quarterly results averaged through the year.
As concerns cultural employment statistics, the accuracy of data is impacted by the availability of data at 3-digits for NACE and 3-digits for ISCO. The estimations for the countries providing NACE 2-digits are derived from the available NACE and ISCO 3-digit data from other EU countries, as outlined in Annex. These estimations apply to data until 2020, as from 2021, with the introduction of the new Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), all the countries provide data at 3-digits for NACE.
The information about the NACE and ISCO codes included in the theoretical scope for culture statistics, as well as NACE and ISCO codes included in the operational definition applied for compilation based on EU-LFS is available in Annex 3 below: "Theoretical and operational scope of data on cultural employment".
Cultural employment data are presented in thousands of persons and as percentages of given populations, e.g. percentages of cultural employment for variables used for analysis (sex, age, etc.).
Cultural employment: General overview
The statistical concept of cultural employment is derived from the methodology proposed by the European Statistical System (ESS) Network on Culture in the ESSnet-Culture final report (2012).
As the ESSnet-Culture final report explains, one can speak of 'cultural employment' in three types of situations (see Figure 2):
member of the workforce (a) hold a cultural occupation and (b) work in the cultural sector (e.g. a ballet dancer employed by a ballet company or a journalist working for a daily newspaper) — field I;
member of the workforce hold a cultural occupation outside the cultural sector (e.g. a designer in the automobile industry) — field II.
member of the workforce hold a non-cultural occupation in the cultural sector (e.g. an accountant in a publishing house) — field III.
Figure: Cultural employment at the intersection of NACE and ISCO classifications
Economic activities (NACE)
Cultural
Non-cultural
Occupations (ISCO)
Cultural
I
II
Non-cultural
III
IV
Cultural employment is therefore measured by the sum I+II+III.
A list of all NACE and ISCO codes to be taken in cultural scope was suggested by the ESSnet Culture final report (2012) and referred to the most refined levels of the classifications (4 digits for NACE and 4 digits for ISCO). However, every ISCO or NACE code was not simply either fully cultural or not culture-related at all. There were some codes which partially represented cultural occupations or economic activities at this lowest level of disaggregation (e.g. NACE 73.11 Advertising agencies or ISCO 1222 Advertising and public relations managers).
The current theoretical definition used by Eurostat for the compilation of employment but also business statistics identify the number of NACE and ISCO codes which are fully cultural at the lowest 4-digit level of both classifications (see Annex 6).
However, the source of data for cultural employment — the EU-LFS database managed by Eurostat — contains a maximum of 3 digits for NACE and 4 digits for ISCO. Taking into account this limitation in EU-LFS, the methodology and calculation algorithm for the derivation of data on cultural employment was built on the optimal configuration of 3-digit of NACE and 4-digits of ISCO and according to the conceptual cultural matrix NACE*ISCO as exposed in Figure.
It must be noted that some adjustments had to be made in the algorithm because among the NACE 3-digit codes retained for the definition, some are composed of codes fully cultural (e.g. NACE 59) and some comprise not-cultural elements. This is the case, e.g. of NACE 58.2 'Software publishing' containing cultural code 58.21 'Publishing of video games' and not cultural code 58.29 'Other software publishing'. Following the conservative approach and based on the analysis of the contribution of not-cultural NACE 4-digit economic activities to code 58.2, this code was excluded from the operational scope applied for cultural employment based on the EU-LFS data.
The complete list of the codes in the theoretical and operational definition used for the compilation of data based on EU-LFS is provided in Annex 3 (see point 13.1).
The proposed methodology is conservative. It tends to underestimate the values for two reasons: exclusion of partly cultural NACE 3-digit codes and estimation of values for countries with different than 3*4 profiles. However, employees in partly cultural detailed NACE3D/ISCO4D categories are not systematically excluded due to the cross-tabulation method. For example, employees with a partly cultural occupation code are included in the operational scope if they are also employed in a cultural sector.
The EU-LFS data are used as input to compute cultural employment statistics.
The comparability of cultural employment data is influenced by data availability at the most detailed NACE (3 digits) and ISCO (4 digits) levels. Estimations are made for countries that provide data with lower levels of granularity.
Breaks in series in data on cultural employment occur in some countries for some reference years and are related to the following situations:
the population figures used for the population adjustment are revised at intervals on the basis of new population censuses (however, it is common practice to disseminate basic recalculated series);
the reference period may not remain the same for a given country due to the transition to a quarterly continuous survey;
in order to improve the quality of results, some countries may change the content or order of their questionnaire;
countries may modify their survey designs.
The list of breaks in series induced by the census revisions, transition to continuous quarterly survey, re-design of survey or change in the methodology imputed to data on cultural employment is provided in Annex 4 - Inventory of breaks in series.
BREXIT: New EU-27_2020 aggregate
Due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union, a new aggregate, (EU-27_2020), has been calculated from February 2020 for the entire time series.
Please note that after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union on 31 January 2020, not only the new EU aggregate (EU-27_2020) is compiled, but also some slight differences (comparing with data calculated with the UK as EU Member State) are noticed in data for countries missing sufficient NACE and ISCO details, where estimations are done based on countries providing data sufficiently detailed.
For data related to the old aggregate EU-28, please refer to the Dedicated Section on information on data under Cultural employment.
