Culture statistics - gender equality

Data extracted in May 2025

Planned article update: September 2026

Highlights

In 2024 at EU level, 50.4% of cultural workers were men and 49.6% women, representing the lowest gender gap in cultural employment in the last 10 years.

In 2022, men’s gross hourly earnings in cultural employment were on average 13.5% above those of women in the EU.

Gender gap in cultural employment

This article from the online publication Culture statistics examines cultural data across the European Union (EU), focusing on gender differences. It covers employment, the gender pay gap, cultural activity participation, and online purchases of cultural goods. It notes a narrowing gender gap in cultural employment and women's significant presence in managerial roles. However, a gender pay gap persists, with more women in low-wage positions. The article also highlights gender differences in cultural participation, including among people with disabilities, and reading and purchasing habits. It provides a comprehensive view of gender-related statistics in the EU's cultural sector, noting progress and ongoing challenges in gender equality.

Employment of men and women in the cultural sector

This section analyses cultural employment by sex, showing how the gender employment gap has changed over time, and presents data on women employed in managerial positions in cultural economic activities.

In 2024, the EU’s cultural sector recorded the smallest gender employment gap in 10 years

Figure 1 shows the share of women and men employed in the cultural sector in the EU between 2015 and 2024. At the beginning of this period, the share of women employed in the sector was 46.8% compared with 53.2% of men. This relatively small difference has decreased over the years. After a period of stability between 2016 and 2018, the gender employment gap gradually narrowed to reach the smallest difference of 0.8 percentage points (pp) in 2024 (50.4% of men vs 49.6% of women).

Figure 1

Cultural employment by sex varied significantly across the EU countries in 2024, as shown in Figure 2. In 16 EU countries, the share of women in cultural employment was higher than that of men. Among these, Latvia and Estonia had the biggest differences, with 32.6 pp and 24.2 pp, respectively, in favour of women. By contrast, in 11 EU countries the share of cultural employment was higher for men than women; the highest shares being in Spain and Italy where they were around 10 pp higher for men. Greece, Romania and Austria had an almost perfect gender employment balance in the cultural sector.

Figure 2

Figure 3 illustrates the annual rate of change both in cultural employment and in total employment for women and men at EU level from 2015 to 2024. Except for 2018, throughout the whole time series the annual rate of change for women in cultural employment was higher than that of men. Compared with total employment, cultural employment showed stronger fluctuations during the past 10 years. In particular, the rate of change for men in cultural employment turned negative in 2015, 2020 and 2023, whereas in total employment this only happened in 2020, a year that was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 3

Cultural employment by sex and labour market characteristic

As shown in Figure 4, in 2024 notable differences were observed particularly for what concerned self-employment and full-time employment. Around 27.7% of women in cultural employment were self-employed compared with 35.6% of men. The proportion of self-employed workers in cultural employment was more than double that of total employment for both male and female workers. On full-time employment, differences were also noted between men and women. In 2024, for total employment 90.3% of men were engaged in full-time work, while for cultural employment this figure was 81.9%. The share of women engaged in full-time work was significantly lower than that of men, standing at around 70% for both total and cultural employment. For men, a low level of full-time employment is characteristic of the cultural field, while for women, this is not the case; women show low levels of full-time employment both in cultural and total employment. This indicates that the inequalities between male and female workers in full-time employment are not specific to the cultural sector but are a general characteristic of the labour market.

Figure 4

Women in managerial positions

Figure 5 shows the percentage of female workers aged 15 and over employed in managerial positions, in both total and cultural employment, over the last 10 years. This indicator shows the unbalanced distribution of decision-making positions between men and women. Throughout the time series, the percentage of women occupying managerial positions was always below 50%. Despite this clear sign of inequality, since 2015 the share of women employed in managerial positions in both total employment and cultural employment has increased. This was particularly evident in the cultural sector, where in 2024 43.9% of female workers were employed as managers compared with 35.2% in total employment.

Figure 5

Gender pay gap and low-wage earners in culture

In 2022, women’s gross hourly earnings in cultural employment were on average 13.5% lower than those of men in the EU

This section analyses the results of the 4-yearly structure of earnings survey, which provides comparable data at EU level on earnings. The gender pay gap refers to the difference in average hourly earnings between men and women. The unadjusted gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of male and female paid employees as a percentage of the average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees.
Figure 6 presents the unadjusted gender pay gap in 2022 for 5 selected cultural economic activities:

Creative, arts and entertainment activities
Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities
Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities
Printing and reproduction of recorded media
Programming and broadcasting activities

The gender pay gap ranged between -1% in Slovenia, indicating slightly lower earnings for men in the cultural sectors, and 23.2% in Latvia, indicating more than one fifth higher average hourly earnings for men than women. At EU level, this indicator showed that men earned on average 13.5% more per hour than women. A total of 15 EU countries were below this average and 12 above. In 26 of the 27 EU countries, men earned more than women. Besides Slovenia, where women in the selected cultural sectors earned more than men, in Luxembourg the gender pay gap was below 5%, indicating a fairly high degree of parity between the earnings of men and women. The differences in the average characteristics can result from many factors, including the prevailing employment of one sex in certain economic activities or the dominating employment of one sex in some occupations. For an analysis of the gender pay gap drivers, please see the article Gender Pay Gap statistics.

Figure 6

Figure 7 shows the proportion of low-wage earners by sex in the selected cultural sectors across the EU. Low-wage earners are defined as employees earning two thirds or less of the national median gross hourly earnings, with the threshold varying for each EU country. In 2022 at EU level, 16.1% of the female employees in the selected cultural activities were found to be low-wage earners, compared to 11.2% of male employees. These figures were broadly in line with those for total employment, but differences emerged when breaking down the indicator by specific cultural activity. The ‘printing and reproduction of recorded media’ sector stood out as the most unequal sector, with 25.9% of women with low wages compared with 12.4% of men, followed by ‘Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities’, with 23.0% of women with low wages compared with 15.1% of men. The percentage of women with low wages was not lower than that for men in any of the 5 selected cultural activities.

Figure 7

Gender equality in cultural participation

In 2022, women participated in cultural activities more than men in 17 EU countries

This section presents data on cultural participation in the EU, including going to the cinema, attending live performances, visiting cultural sites and reading books. In 2022, women’s participation rates exceeded those of men in 17 of the 26 EU countries with available data. In 14 countries, more than half of men and women reported participating in cultural activities at least once during the 12 months preceding the interview (see Figure 8). Denmark had the highest participation rate for women (79.6%), while Luxembourg had the highest rate for men (77.5%). Denmark recorded the largest difference (4.6 pp) in the participation rate between women (79.6%) and men (75.0%). This indicates that despite the slight prevalence of women participating in cultural activities in most EU countries, strong inequalities in this area are not observed. The country with the lowest participation rate in cultural activities for both women and men was Bulgaria, with rates of 20.5% for women and 18.7% for men, followed by Romania (21.8% for women and 22.7% for men) and Croatia (33.6% for women and 31.1% for men).

Figure 8

Breaking down the data by type of cultural activity, in 2022 there were no noticeable differences between men and women in terms of going to the cinema or visiting cultural sites. By contrast, in 24 of the 26 countries with available data, women systematically reported more frequently having attended live events than men. The highest difference was reported in Czechia, where 38% of women declared that they had attended a live cultural event at least once in the preceding 12 months compared with 28% of men (see Figure 9).

Figure 9

Women participated in cultural activities more than men in all age groups except for 65 and over in 2022

In half of the countries, the percentage of men aged 65 and over who reported participating in cultural activities surpassed that of women (see Table 1). In all the EU countries with available data except for Hungary, women aged 16-29 participated in cultural activities more than men. Women in this age group in Luxembourg recorded the highest participation rate in the EU at 90.4%, with the Netherlands following closely with 87.3%. Denmark had the smallest difference in participation rates between men and women (0.1 pp), showing almost parity in this area. On cultural habits among people aged 55-64, noticeable differences in participation rates between men and women were recorded in Estonia, with 45.4% of men and 60.8% of women, and in Lithuania where the rate was 32.4% for men and 47.0% for women.

Table 1 - People participating in cultural activities in the last 12 months by sex and age group 2022
Source: Eurostat (ilc_scp03)

In 2022, ‘no interest’ was reported as the main reason for not reading books by both men and women

Figure 10 presents 2022 EU data on the reading of books, by sex and number of books read. Books read include e-books or audio books during the last 12 months but exclude podcasts. All types of books are counted (historical, scientific, poetry, novels, etc.) except schoolbooks or manuals for work. Higher reading rates were reported for women. The percentage of men who reported not having read a single book was significantly higher than that of women (55.5% against 39.5%). Moreover, as the number of books read increased, the difference between women and men widened. While the rate of reading fewer than 5 books per year was 4.0 pp higher for women (28.8% versus 24.8%), this difference increased to 4.5 pp for 5-9 books and to 7.5 pp for 10 books or more.

Figure 10

Figure 11 gives some interesting insights into the reasons given for not reading books. In 2022, lack of interest was reported as the primary reason by both women and men across the EU. More than half of men (56.5%) mentioned lack of interest, but the rate was 12.1 pp lower for women. Financial difficulties, lack of time, difficulties, and other reasons were mentioned more often among women.

Figure 11

Table 2 shows the participation of individuals in cultural activities categorised by level of disability (activity limitation), broken down by sex and country in 2022. The EU-SILC ‘quality of life’ variables provide, amongst others, the breakdown by disability level (activity limitation). In 19 EU countries, the cultural participation rate of women with some or severe activity limitations exceeded that of men. Notably, in Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Finland more than half of both women and men with activity limitations participated in cultural activities. In Denmark the participation rate of women with a disability reached 71.4%, and in Luxembourg the rate for men stood at 69.1%.

Table 2: People participating in cultural activities by sex and level of disability, 2022
Source: Eurostat (ilc_scp37)

In 2024, women bought printed and electronic books more than men, while men used the internet to buy films or series to stream or download, and for gaming more than women

The information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become the most common way of accessing culture for large parts of the society throughout the EU. This section presents data on the purchase of cultural goods and services by individuals aged 16-74 who used the internet in the 3 months preceding the data collection. The following cultural goods and services bought online are covered:

printed books, magazines or newspapers
e-books or audio books as downloads
subscriptions to films, series or sports streaming services
subscriptions to music streaming services
subscriptions to online news sites, online newspapers or online magazines
subscriptions to gaming streaming services
games as downloads
tickets to cultural or other events

This section presents data on the purchase of cultural goods and services by individuals aged 16-74 who used the internet in the 3 months preceding the data collection. As shown in Figure 12, there are differences between men and women in this respect. In 2024, 31.4% of men had a paid subscription to films, series or sports streaming services. This was the category most frequently reported by male internet users, followed by the purchase of tickets to events (24.2%). For women, similarly to men, video streaming services (28.0%) and events tickets (25.4%) were the most common categories of cultural products purchased online. At EU level, women were keener to use the internet to purchase both printed and digital publications, while men surpassed women in purchasing video contents, music and videogames online. For what concerns the online purchase of tickets to events, the difference between women and men was quite minimal (1.2 p.p. difference in favour of women), showing a fairly similar access to this type of product.

Figure 12

Source data for tables

Culture statistics - gender equality tables

Data sources

Eurostat’s statistics on cultural employment are sourced from the EU Labour Force Survey, which collects data from people aged 15 and over. Eurostat compiles the data by area of economic activity in which the employed person works and their occupation, using a matrix to create an aggregate for all cultural employment. For details on the estimation methods used by Eurostat in the area of cultural employment refer to the article Culture statistics - cultural employment.

The data on earnings presented in this article are the result of a special ad hoc extraction from the 4-yearly structure of earnings survey (SES), conducted in the EU Member States, EFTA countries as well as candidate and potential candidate countries. The SES provides comparable information at EU level on the relationship between the level of earnings, individual characteristics of employees (sex, age, occupation, length of service, educational level) and their employer (economic activity, size of the enterprise, etc.) for the reference years 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.

Statistics on cultural participation are from the EU statistics on income and living conditions. The EU-SILC is the EU reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social inclusion at European level. In 2022, in addition to annual data, the EU-SILC included variables on health (with data collected every 3 years) and variables on quality of life (with data collected every 6 years). The data were collected in all 27 EU Member States, in 3 of the EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), as well as in Montenegro, Serbia and Türkiye. The target population was people aged 16 years and over, while the reference period was 12 months prior to the interview. The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were still in force in some countries at the time of data collection. Due to the high non-response rate, 2022 data for Germany is not available. A detailed description of the list of variables as well as information on their implementation are available in the methodological guidelines.

The data on online purchase of cultural goods and services are derived from the EU survey on the use of ICT in households and by individuals. The survey is conducted every year as from 2002. The aim of the ICT survey is to provide relevant statistics on areas such as access to and use of ICTs, use of the internet, use of e-commerce and ICT skills. Data are broken down by many variables including age, sex and level of educational attainment. The target population is people aged 16-74 living in private households. See digital economy and society legislation.

Context

Culture is one of Europe’s greatest assets: it is a source of values, identity and a sense of belonging. It also contributes to wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion. The cultural and creative sectors provide a stimulus for economic growth, job creation and international trade. In accordance with Article 167 of the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU is obliged to ‘contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common heritage to the fore’.

The EU supports these objectives through the Creative Europe programme, as well as through a number of policy actions set out in the work plan for culture (2023-2026). The work plan, adopted by EU culture ministers in December 2022, sets out 4 main priorities for European cooperation in cultural policymaking:

artists and cultural professionals: empowering the cultural and creative sectors
culture for the people: enhancing cultural participation and the role of culture in society
culture for the planet: unleashing the power of culture
culture for co-creative partnerships: strengthening the cultural dimension of EU external relations

The production of reliable, comparable and up-to-date cultural statistics, which provide a basis for sound cultural policymaking, is a cross-sectoral priority for the Commission. Eurostat compiles culture statistics from several different data collections to provide policymakers and other users of statistics with information on the main developments in the area of culture, covering issues such as education, employment, business, international trade, participation patterns and consumption patterns.

Explore further

Database

Culture (cult), see:

Cultural employment (cult_emp)

Cultural employment by sex (cult_emp_sex)

Cultural employment by age (cult_emp_age)

Cultural employment by educational attainment level (cult_emp_edu)

Cultural employment by NACE Rev.2 activity (cult_emp_n2)

Cultural employment by sex and selected labour market characteristics (cult_emp_wsta)

Cultural participation (cult_pcs)

Participation in cultural activities - EU-SILC survey (cult_pcs_ilc)

Persons participating in cultural or sport activities in the last 12 months by sex, age, educational attainment, activity type and frequency (ilc_scp03)

Persons participating in in cultural or sport activities in the last 12 months by income quintile, household composition, degree of urbanisation, activity type and frequency (ilc_scp04)

Persons not participating in cultural or sport activities in the last 12 months by sex, age, educational attainment, activity type and reasons (ilc_scp05)

Persons practicing artistic activities by sex, age, educational attainment and frequency (ilc_scp07)

Persons reading books in the last 12 months by sex, age, educational attainment and number of books (ilc_scp27)

Persons participating in cultural or sport activities by sex, age, level of disability (activity limitation), activity type and frequency (ilc_scp37)

Digital economy and society (cult_pcs_ict)

Individuals - internet activities (isoc_ci_ac_i)

Internet purchases by individuals (until 2019) (isoc_ec_ibuy)

Internet purchases - goods or services (2020 onwards) (isoc_ec_ibgs)

External links

Legislation