Data extracted in May 2025.
Planned article update: July 2026.
Highlights
In 2024, there were 7.9 million people in cultural employment across the EU, 3.8% of the total employment.
In 2024, cultural employment in the EU grew by 1.9% compared to the previous year.
In 2024, there was the smallest ever gender gap in cultural employment, with 4.00 million men and 3.93 million women employed in the sector.
This article forms part of the online publication Culture statistics. It provides an overview of developments in cultural employment and information on cultural employment’s share of total employment.
The data on cultural employment are derived from the European Union labour force survey (EU-LFS). The analysis looks in detail at cultural employment according to various socio-economic aspects: age, sex, level of educational attainment, professional status and whether full- or part-time. The article also looks at the employment characteristics of creative and performing artists, authors, journalists and linguists. The statistics are based on a methodology outlined in the ESSnet-Culture final report (2012).
Cultural employment includes everyone working in economic activities that are deemed cultural, whether or not the person is employed in a specifically cultural occupation. It also covers people with a cultural occupation, whether or not they are employed in a cultural economic activity. Cultural employment is defined in terms of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2) and by the international standard classification of occupations (ISCO). A full list of the economic activities and occupations classified as cultural employment is available below, in the section on data sources.
Cultural employment – current state and latest developments
In 2024, cultural employment accounted for 3.8% of total employment in the EU, (equal to 7.9 million people), ranging from a minimum of 1.6% in Romania to a maximum of 5.3% in the Netherlands. Overall, cultural employment accounted for a higher share of total employment in western and northern EU countries than in eastern and southern EU countries (see Map 1).
Cultural employment over recent years
In 2024, cultural employment increased in 15 EU countries compared with 2023. Romania (10.4%), France (9.4%) and Hungary (9.0%) recorded the highest increases, while Sweden (-7.7%) and Finland (-7.1%) saw the most significant decreases. Czechia was the only country where cultural employment remained unchanged over the period (see Figure 1).
At EU level, in 2024, cultural employment showed an annual increase of 1.9%. However, trends varied significantly across countries. In 6 EU countries, growth was recorded consecutively in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 5 others, a decline in 2024 followed two consecutive years of growth. In 4 countries, cultural employment rose between 2021 and 2022 but declined in 2023 and 2024. In Slovenia, after 2 years of decline, cultural employment rose in 2024. By contrast, Belgium recorded a continuous decrease throughout the period from 2022 to 2024.
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Table 1 presents data on cultural employment for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, providing information on the absolute number of people in cultural employment and the share of total employment at EU and national levels. Significant increases between 2023 and 2024 were observed in France (+109 200), Spain (+43 800), Italy (+17 700) and Hungary (+15 400). In the same period, Poland, Sweden and Germany experienced the greatest decline in cultural employment, with a decrease of 25 800, 19 200 and 11 700 individuals, respectively. Regarding cultural employment as a share of total employment, increases were observed in 10 EU countries. The highest rise of 0.3 percentage points (pp) was recorded in France and Hungary. By contrast, 11 EU countries saw a decrease in this share, the most in Sweden (-0.4 pp), Ireland and Finland (-0.3 pp each).
Trends in employment across cultural sectors
In the following paragraph we present the distribution of people employed across cultural sectors as defined by the NACE Rev. 2 classification of economic activities. Figure 2 shows employment trends at EU level in selected cultural sectors since 2013, encompassing most individuals included in cultural employment statistics (57.1%).
Recent observations indicate the following patterns in employment development within the cultural sectors:
- the creative, arts and entertainment activities sector (NACE R90) experienced a substantial decline in employment in 2020 and 2021; however, the subsequent years suggest a return to the upward trend observed before the COVID-19 pandemic
- employment in activities related to design, photography and translation (NACE M74.1, M74.2, M74.3) recorded a slight decrease in 2024 compared with the previous year, following a steady increase since 2020
- employment in cultural heritage activities (NACE R91), as well as in audio-visual production (NACE J59), remained broadly aligned with the long-term upward developments observed in these areas
- the consistent decline in employment in the publishing sector (NACE, part of J58) continued in 2024, while the decrease in occupations related to content reproduction (NACE C18 – Printing and reproduction of recorded media) slowed down compared with previous years
- employment in programming and broadcasting activities (NACE J60) declined between 2021 and 2023, but recorded an increase in 2024, interrupting the recent downward trajectory
- employment in the sector related to cultural manufacturing (part of NACE C32) has remained stable over the years, with a noticeable increase in 2022 followed by a return to previous levels in 2023 and 2024
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Source: Eurostat (cult_emp_n2)
Characteristics of cultural employment in 2024
Cultural employment by sex, age and educational attainment
In 2024, the socio-demographic profile of cultural employment in the EU was slightly different from that of total employment, in particular concerning sex and age. However, the differences where more significant when these groups were broken down by educational attainment level.
Women’s share in cultural employment was higher than the share of women in total employment (with a share of 49.6% versus 46.4%). When broken down by age, cultural employment showed higher percentages of people aged 30-39 years (24.5% in cultural employment versus 22.6% in total employment), those aged 65 years and over (4.9% versus 3.1% in total employment), and those aged 15-29 years (18.0% versus 17.3%). Conversely, there were fewer people in cultural employment compared to total employment in the age groups 50-64 years old (28.9% versus 32.0%) and 40-49 years old (23.7% versus 25.0%).
Compared with sex and age, the educational attainment structure shows the most pronounced difference between cultural and total employment. According to 2024 data, the socio-demographic profile of cultural employment was characterized by a generally higher level of educational attainment, with 62.3% of cultural workers having tertiary education (ISCED 5-8), 30.4% having upper secondary education and 7.1% of them having the lowest levels of educational attainment (ISCED 0-2). In total employment, these figures accounted for 38.6%, 45.2% and 16.0%, respectively (see Figure 3).
Source: Eurostat (cult_emp_sex), (lfsa_egan2), (cult_emp_age), (lfsa_egan), (cult_emp_edu) and (lfsa_egaed)
The share of women in cultural employment
Between 2013 and 2024, the number of women employed in culture-related activities steadily increased across the EU, except in 2020. In 2024, the number of women employed in culture increased by around 2.1% compared to the previous year, while cultural employment for men increased by 1.7%. As a result of these changes, the difference in cultural employment share between men and women narrowed to below 1 pp (50.4% men and 49.6% women) in 2024 (see Figure 4).
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Source: Eurostat (cult_emp_sex)
While the share of men and women in cultural employment at the EU level in 2024 was almost equal, the picture varied somewhat across EU countries. In 16 EU countries, there were more women than men in cultural employment, with the highest national share observed in Latvia at 66.5%, followed by Estonia at 62.1% and Cyprus at 60.5%. Countries with the lowest percentage of women in cultural employment were Spain (44.3%) and Italy (45.1%).
For more detailed information on the characteristics of cultural and total employment figures broken down by sex, age and educational attainment, please refer to the 
[[:Media:{{{filename}}}|Cultural employment: tables and figures]].
Some other characteristics of cultural employment
The EU-LFS also provides information on additional socioeconomic characteristics that may be used to analyse cultural employment in more detail, including self-employment and working pattern (full-time and part-time employment).
Self-employment
Besides the high share of tertiary educated workers, cultural employment is also characterised by a relatively high proportion of self-employed persons. This reflects the independent and specialised nature of many occupations in the cultural sector – for example, authors, performing artists, musicians, painters and sculptors or craftspeople.
In 2024, almost one-third (31.7%) of cultural workers across the EU were self-employed (compared to an average of 13.6% in the whole economy). Self-employment accounted for nearly half of all cultural employment in Italy (47.1%) and the Netherlands (46.0%). The other countries with rates of cultural self-employment higher than the EU average were Greece, Czechia, Ireland, Austria, Cyprus and Slovenia. By contrast, less than 20% of those in cultural employment were self-employed in Luxembourg and Romania. The level of self-employment in the field of culture was higher than the level of self-employment in the national economy, in all 27 EU countries.
Full-time work
In 2024, more than three quarters (75.5%) of cultural workers in the EU were employed on a full-time basis, (6 pp less than in the whole economy). This pattern occurred in almost all EU countries, except for the Netherlands and Romania. The smaller proportion of people working full-time in culture-related professions could be explained, at least partly, by a number of cultural jobs being characterised by self-employment/freelancing and job flexibility. Full-time employment in the cultural field varies significantly across countries, ranging from 60.0% in the Netherlands to 95.4% in Croatia and 97.3% in Romania. These differences primarily reflect variations in national labour markets, such as the prevalence of part-time work, rather than unique features specific to cultural employment.
Permanent jobs and employment with one-job positions
Less pronounced differences between total and cultural employment concerned job permanency and single-job holding. In 2024, permanency of job was 5 pp lower for cultural employment (81.9%) than for total employment (87.1%). The lowest rates of permanent employment in cultural sectors were observed in the Netherlands (68.9%) and France (71.2%), while the highest rates were seen in Romania (99.4%), Lithuania (98.5%), Latvia (97.8%), Bulgaria (96.5%) and Hungary (95.1%).
Holding one job was slightly less common in cultural employment than in total employment in almost all EU countries. The only exceptions were Romania and Malta, where the shares of single-job holders in cultural employment (99.9% and 95.3%, respectively) slightly exceeded those in total employment (99.4% and 95.1%, see Table 2).
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Source: Eurostat (cult_emp_wsta)
Focus on artists, authors, journalists and linguists
This final section of the article presents information on the employment characteristics of two groups of cultural occupations (as defined in the ISCO-08 classification under groups 264 and 265): creative and performing artists (including visual artists, musicians, dancers, actors, film directors, etc.) and authors, journalists and linguists. These two types of occupations here are referred to as ’artists and writers’.
In 2024, the EU had almost 1.79 million artists and writers, constituting 22.6% of all cultural employment. Among them, around 45.1% were self-employed, a significantly higher proportion compared to both total employment (13.6%) and the cultural employment of the EU (31.7%). In Germany, the share of self-employed artists and writers was 5.5 times higher than the share of self-employed persons in the total national economy. The self-employment rate among artists and writers also significantly exceeded the total national level in Cyprus (low reliability), Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Denmark and Finland. Additionally, rates of at least 50% self-employment among artists and writers were observed in Italy and the Netherlands (63.7% each), Ireland (57.4%), Portugal (56.9%), Czechia (56.6%), and Cyprus (53.1%).
In 2024, the full-time employment rate among artists and writers in the EU was 71.4%, slightly lower than the rates observed for cultural employment (75.5%) and total economy (81.2%). The most visible contrast was seen in Cyprus, where the proportion of full-time artists and writers was around 26 pp lower compared to the level of total employment (64.7% vs 91.1%). By contrast, Luxembourg (6 pp), the Netherlands (4 pp), Belgium (1 pp) and Romania (1 pp) were the EU countries where the percentage of full-time artists and writers exceeded the proportion of full-time workers in the entire national economies. Notably, the Netherlands had the lowest full-time employment rates in 2024 across the EU, with 60.1% for artists and writers and 56.3% for total employment.
A sign of the precarious nature of employment faced by artists and writers can be seen in the duration of their work contracts. In 2024, 87.1% of all employees in the EU had a permanent employment contract, while among artists and writers, a permanent contract was held by less than three-quarters (71.9%) of employees. Compared with the total national employment, a lower percentage of artists and writers had a permanent contract in most EU countries, apart from Cyprus (low reliability) and Romania. The greatest difference between values recorded for the total economy and these creative activities was in France (35 pp), where, in 2024, only around half of the people employed as artists and writers had a permanent contract (49.8%).
Besides their main job, some artists and writers have a second job. Across the EU, most people (96.0%) in overall employment held a single job in 2024. Artists and writers were less likely (90.0%) to have just one job, and this pattern occurred in all EU countries except Malta (low reliability) and Romania. The share of artists and writers with just one job was more than 10 pp below the level of the total economy in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria and Denmark. In addition, Estonia recorded the lowest share of single-job employment for artists or writers among EU countries in 2024 (76.9%), indicating that approximately one in four held multiple jobs (see Table 3).
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Source: Eurostat (cult_emp_art) and (cult_emp_artpc)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
The statistical concept of cultural employment is based on the methodology proposed by the European Statistical System Network on Culture (see the ESSnet-Culture final report (2012)).
The ESSnet-Culture report defines cultural employment by crossing economic activities (based on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community - NACE Rev. 2) with a set of occupations (using the international standard classification of occupations - ISCO-08).
Defining cultural employment
As the ESSnet-Culture report notes, cultural employment covers three types of situations (see Figure 5):
- an employed person holds a cultural occupation and works in the cultural sector (for example, a ballet dancer employed by a ballet company or a journalist working for a daily newspaper);
- an employed person holds a cultural occupation outside the cultural sector (for example, a designer who works in the motor vehicles industry);
- an employed person holds a non-cultural occupation in the cultural sector (for example, an accountant working in a publishing house).
Source: ESSnet-Culture final report (2012);
Eurostat’s statistics on cultural employment are sourced from the EU-LFS; the population covered by this data collection concerns people aged 15 years and more. Eurostat compiles data on cultural employment according to the field of economic activity in which the employed person works and their occupation, using a matrix to create an aggregate for all cultural employment. The data may be analysed at a more detailed level, for example, broken down by sex, age or by the level of educational attainment.
The two lists below contain the economic activities (NACE Rev. 2) and occupations (ISCO-08) used to calculate aggregates for cultural employment from the EU-LFS.
Cultural sectors (economic activities) — NACE Rev. 2
| 18 | Printing and reproduction of recorded media |
| 32.2 | Manufacture of musical instruments |
| 58.1 | Publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing activities |
| 59 | Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities |
| 60 | Programming and broadcasting activities |
| 74.1 | Specialised design activities |
| 74.2 | Photographic activities |
| 74.3 | Translation and interpretation activities |
| 90 | Creative, arts and entertainment activities |
| 91 | Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities |
Cultural occupations — ISCO-08
| 216 | Architects, planners, surveyors and designers |
| 2353 | Other language teachers |
| 2354 | Other music teachers |
| 2355 | Other arts teachers |
| 262 | Librarians, archivists and curators |
| 264 | Authors, journalists and linguists |
| 265 | Creative and performing artists |
| 3431 | Photographers |
| 3432 | Interior designers and decorators |
| 3433 | Gallery, museum and library technicians |
| 3435 | Other artistic and cultural associate professionals |
| 3521 | Broadcasting and audio-visual technicians |
| 4411 | Library clerks |
| 7312 | Musical instrument makers and tuners |
| 7313 | Jewellery and precious-metal workers |
| 7314 | Potters and related workers |
| 7315 | Glass makers, cutters, grinders and finishers |
| 7316 | Sign writers, decorative painters, engravers and etchers |
| 7317 | Handicraft workers in wood, basketry and related materials |
| 7318 | Handicraft workers in textile, leather and related materials |
| 7319 | Handicraft workers not elsewhere classified |
The EU-LFS requires data to be provided for NACE divisions (two-digit level) and for ISCO minor groups (three-digit level). However, most countries provide a more detailed classification on a voluntary basis. For countries missing information at NACE three-digit level or/and ISCO four-digit level, the estimate is made using coefficients calculated for countries that provide the highest level of detail.
Estimating cultural employment
When estimating cultural employment, it is difficult to determine the proportion of some economic activities and occupations that is genuinely cultural. For this reason, activities and occupations which are only partially cultural were excluded from the estimates. For example, sports, recreation and cultural centre managers (ISCO Unit Group 1431) refers to an occupation with a cultural component; however, it is impossible to estimate the share specifically relating to culture. Therefore, and taking a conservative approach, it was decided to exclude this occupation (and other similar cases) when computing an aggregate for cultural employment.
Moreover, the EU-LFS collects (detailed enough) information on the economic activity and occupation only of the respondent’s main job and therefore omits information about secondary jobs (e.g., in the field of culture). Consequently, these secondary jobs are excluded from the aggregate covering cultural employment.
In view of these limitations and the approach adopted, data on cultural employment are likely to underestimate the true extent of employment in this field.
Time series
Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 came into force on 1 January 2021 and resulted in a break in the EU-LFS time series for several EU Member States. To monitor the evolution of employment and unemployment despite the break in the time series, Member States assessed the impact of the break in their country and computed impact factors or break corrected data for a set of indicators. Break corrected data are published for the LFS main indicators.
More information on the EU-LFS can be found via the online publication, which includes eight articles on the technical and methodological aspects of the survey. The EU-LFS methodology in force from the 2021 data collection onwards is described in methodology from 2021 onwards. Detailed information on coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications used over time can be found under documentation.
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 well-being, social cohesion and inclusion. The cultural and creative sectors provide a stimulus for economic growth, job creation and international trade.
The EU supports these objectives through the Creative Europe programmeand several policy actions included 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 European 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 field of culture, covering issues such as education, employment, business, international trade, participation patterns and consumption patterns.
Explore further
Other articles
- Culture (all Statistics Explained articles on culture)
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)
- Persons working as creative and performing artists, authors, journalists and linguists (cult_emp_art)
- Persons working as creative and performing artists, authors, journalists and linguists by individual and employment characteristics (cult_emp_artpc)
- Cultural employment by sex (cult_emp_sex)
- Cultural employment (cult_emp)
- Labour market (labour), see:
- Employment and unemployment (Labour force survey) (employ)
- LFS series - detailed annual survey results (lfsa)
- Employment - LFS series (lfsa_emp)
- Employment - LFS series (lfsa_emp)
- LFS series - detailed annual survey results (lfsa)
- Employment and unemployment (Labour force survey) (employ)
Thematic section
Publications
Methodology
- European statistical system network on culture (ESSnet-Culture final report (2012))
- Cultural employment (ESMS metadata file — cult_emp_esms)
- Employment and unemployment (Labour force survey) (ESMS metadata file — employ_esms)
- EU labour force survey — online publication
External links
- European Commission — Culture and Creativity
- EU work plan for culture (2023-2026)
- Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a European agenda for culture in a globalising world (COM(2007) 242)
Legislation
- Regulation (EU) 2021/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021 establishing the Creative Europe Programme (2021 to 2027) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1295/2013
- Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples
- Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240 on the organisation of a sample survey in the labour force domain in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/1700
- Implementing Regulation (EC) No 2020/1013 pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700
- EU labour force survey – complete list of regulations