Statistics on cultural employment relate to the number of workers (employees and self-employed) in the cultural field. The concept of cultural employment has been delineated in the ESSnet-Culture report 2012 and includes all individuals working in a culture-related economic activity (NACE Rev. 2 classification) regardless their occupation, as well as all individuals with a culture-related occupation (ISCO-08 classification) whatever the economic activity they are employed in.

Data on cultural employment are extracted and then compiled from the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS). They provide a comparable picture of the cultural employment across EU countries and information on it broken down 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).

It should be mentioned that the estimation of cultural employment is obtained using a conservative approach. This is due to the impossibility to determine the real cultural part of some activities and occupations which are only partially cultural (and as such they are excluded from the estimations). Moreover, the lack of information on the possible secondary cultural jobs does not allow for their inclusion in the cultural employment (only the main job of surveyed individuals is taken into account).

In 2016, the Working Group 'Culture statistics' agreed on the revision of the scope of cultural employment, with the main aim to come closer to the scope used by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). The scope of cultural employment was extended by some additional NACE and ISCO codes. This revision is now implemented in the database from reference year 2011 onwards. The details about the old and revised scope can be consulted in the metadata attached to these statistics.

After the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union on 31 January 2020, a new aggregate for EU has been calculated (EU-27_2020).

Apart from this new aggregate, some slight differences are noticed in data for countries where estimations are done (because of the insufficient details in NACE and ISCO) based on countries providing data sufficiently detailed (as the UK).

EU data related to the EU-28, included also in the publication ‘Culture statistics - 2018 edition’, are available below in Csv format for the reference years 2011-2018.

Data archive for EU-28

• Cultural employment by sex (with EU-28) 
• Cultural employment by age (with EU-28) 
• Cultural employment by educational attainment level (with EU-28) 
• Cultural employment by NACE rev.2 (with EU-28)
• Cultural employment by sex and selected labour market characteristics (with EU-28)
• Persons working as creative and performing artists, authors, journalists and linguists (with EU-28)
• Persons working as creative and performing artists, authors, journalists and linguists by individual and employment characteristics (with EU-28)

Data on enterprises active in the cultural sectors come from the domains 'Structural Business Statistics' (SBS) and 'Business demography' (BD). In addition to those economic indicators on cultural businesses, data from PRODCOM provide the volume (in euros) of sold production of cultural goods. 

Structural Business Statistics (SBS) cover industry, construction, trade and service enterprises classified according to the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2). This classification allows for a detailed sectoral breakdown of business activities (up to four-digit level). SBS provide information on the number of enterprises and many other economic indicators, e.g. value added, turnover, personnel costs.

Business Demography (BD) statistics cover variables that explain the characteristics and demography of the business population and provide data on enterprises' births and deaths and derived indicators such as survival rate.

In 2018, the Working Group 'Culture statistics' agreed on the revision of the scope of cultural enterprises, with the main aim to come closer to the scope used by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), as it was done for cultural employment. The scope of cultural enterprises was therefore extended by some additional NACE codes in the sector of services (4761, 4762, 4763, 742, 743 and 7722) and also in the sector of industry (18, 3212 and 322). This revision is implemented now in the Eurobase, for reference years 2010 onwards. The details about the old and revised scope can be consulted in the metadata attached to these statistics.

As regards the cultural sectors, the coverages of SBS and BD data differs somewhat.

SBS cover the business economy, including the following cultural activities:

• C18 Printing and reproduction of recorded media; 
• C3212 Manufacture of jewellery and related articles; 
• C322 Manufacture of musical instruments; 
• G4761 Retail sale of books in specialised stores; 
• G4762 Retail sale of newspapers and stationery in specialised stores; 
• G4763 Retail sale of music and video recordings in specialised stores; 
• J5811 Book publishing; 
• J5813 Publishing of newspapers; 
• J5814 Publishing of journals and periodicals; 
• J5821 Publishing of computer games; 
• J59 Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities; 
• J60 Programming and broadcasting activities; 
• J6391 News agency activities; 
• M7111 Architectural activities,
• M741 Specialised design activities; 
• M742 Photographic activities; 
• M743 Translation and interpretation activities; 
• N7722 Renting of video tapes and disks.

BD statistics cover the following cultural market-oriented activities:

• J59 Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities;
• J60 Programming and broadcasting activities; 
• M7111 Architectural activities;
• M741 Specialised design activities;
• M742 Photographic activities; 
• M743 Translation and interpretation activities; 
• N7722 Renting of video tapes and disks;
• R90 Creative, arts and entertainment activities and R91 Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities are collected on a voluntary basis.  Therefore data are missing for some countries.

Statistics on international trade in cultural goods measure the value of cultural goods traded between EU Member States (intra-EU trade) and between Member States and non-EU countries (extra-EU trade). Such statistics provide a picture of the contribution of culture related products to the international trade and give some idea of the impact of the culture on the economy.

Data on external trade in cultural goods are extracted from the Eurostat Comext database which contains trade statistics for the EU Member States, EFTA countries and Candidate Countries.

The list of cultural goods in international trade was elaborated according to the criteria presented in the ESSnet-Culture final report (2012) that were applied to the list of  products in the Combined Nomenclature (CN) - European classification for international trade purpose. The numerous cultural goods identified at 8-digit were then aggregated in meaningful groups in order to obtain a more clear view of the patterns of the international trade in this field

In 2016, an extension of the cultural scope was agreed by the Working Group 'Culture statistics' and implemented in data on international trade for reference years 2004 onwards. The publication "Culture statistics - 2016 edition" was based on the initial cultural scope. Data with the initial scope - for the reference period 2002-2015 - are available below in Excel format. The detailed content of both old and new scope can be found in  Annex 2.

The following indicators are available for import and export of cultural goods for individual partner countries or geo-economic areas:

• Value of trade in thousands of Euro
• Percentage of total trade
• Percentage of total EU trade
• Percentage of total cultural trade

Data archive

• Intra and extra-EU trade in cultural goods by product
• Intra and extra-EU trade in cultural goods by product and partner

International trade in cultural services are the activities which involve the sale and delivery of an intangible cultural service between a producer and a consumer who are, in legal terms, based in different countries or economies.

The data on international trade in cultural services are derived from Balance of Payments (BOP) domain and more specifically from International Trade in Services (ITS) statistics used to monitor the external commercial performance of different economies.

Statistics on international trade in services distinguish the transactions between EU Member States (intra-EU trade) from the transactions with non-member countries (extra-EU trade). At national level, the total includes international transactions with all countries of the world and comprises intra-EU and extra-EU transactions.

Cultural services refer to the particular set of services identified according to:

• Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 2010 (MSITS 2010)
• UNESCO-FCS Framework for cultural statistics (2009)
• UNESCO-UIS The globalisation of cultural trade: a shift in consumption. International flows of cultural goods and services 2004-2013 (2016 edition)
• Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS2010), consistent with the IMF Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6).

Cultural services included in the international trade in cultural services section of Eurostat database refer to the following service items of the EBOPS2010:

• Information services (SI3)
• Architectural services (SJ311)
• Audio-visual and related services (SK1)
• Licenses to reproduce and/or distribute audio-visual and related products (SH4)
• Heritage and recreational services (SK23).

Because of the limited availability or comparability of data on two latest categories, the aggregate for cultural services is not computed.

Data on international trade in cultural services cover the EU, EFTA and Candidate Countries. The trade value of credit, debit and balance  is expressed in millions of euros.

Statistics included in the section cultural participation provide an overview of indicators referring to the involvement of people in cultural activities, including those done via internet.

Indicators on the following activities were computed using available Eurostat data:

• Cultural practices like reading books and newspapers, going to cinema, going to theatres and concerts and visiting cultural sites - from the specific modules on social and cultural participation of Adult Education Survey conducted in 2007 and 2011 and from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) ad hoc modules on social and cultural participation in 2006 and 2015;

• Use of ICT (internet) for cultural purposes - from the annual Community survey on ICT usage in households and by individuals;

• Cultural activities in terms of time devoted to them during a day - from 2000 and 2010 waves of Time Use Survey;

• Data from the City Statistics perception surveys make it possible to assess the satisfaction of cities' residents about the cultural facilities existing in their cities (cinemas, concert halls, theatres, museums and libraries). Cities data report also the capacity of cinemas (number of seats), cinema and museum attendance, number of theatres and public libraries.

As concerns private cultural expenditure, data and analysis focuses on the household expenditure on cultural goods and services. This dimension allows better understanding of the private financing of culture, cultural participation and in some way - access to culture. Two types of data are available:

• Household expenditure on cultural goods and services in PPS and in relation to the total household consumption. These statistics are compiled from 2010 Household Budget Survey

• Price indices for main cultural goods and services available from the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP).

Statistics on government expenditure from Government Finance Statistics follow the COFOG classification (Classification Of the Functions Of Government). Expenditure on culture cannot be completely isolated but is included in the division 08 Recreation, culture and religion.

This category is further detailed into the following groups:

08.1 - Recreational and sporting services
08.2 - Cultural services
08.3 - Broadcasting and publishing services
08.4 - Religious and other community services
08.5 - R&D Recreation, culture and religion
08.6 - Recreation, culture and religion n.e.c.

Groups 08.2 and 08.3 can be considered as fully cultural. For more information about the content of different groups, please refer to the COFOG manual.

Eurostat has no database focusing specifically on music. The various EU harmonised surveys and datasets include only a few items of information on the topic.

One of the issues is that statistical classifications and variables often do not differentiate music from other cultural activities in broader categories (e.g. live performances or artistic creation).

‘Cultural heritage’ is one of the domains covered by the European framework for cultural statistics (see the ESSnet-Culture final report, 2012).

It is not easy to capture the cultural heritage in terms of data. Countries deal with their cultural heritage in different ways. They have specific legislation and policies for the preservation of their cultural heritage, and different practices as regards collecting statistics.

Eurostat’s most recent publication on the subject,   Culture statistics, 2019, presents some interesting information, mainly qualitative, on aspects of the European cultural heritage that feature on UNESCO lists: cultural sites, intangible cultural heritage of humanity, and good safeguarding practices. It also includes:

• a list of sites with the European Heritage Label,
• a list of European Capitals of Culture, and
• data on the 5 most visited museums by country, collected by the European Group on Museum Statistics (EGMUS).

At European level, several EU harmonised surveys and databases include data on topics to do with our cultural heritage. However, statistical classifications or variables often fail to distinguish cultural heritage-related items from other categories covered by broader codes (e.g. for occupations by ISCO, for public expenditure by COFOG).

As regards the sector of economic activity, captured by the NACE Rev.2 classification, there is one main code relating to the cultural heritage: division 91 - ‘Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities’. In the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP), code CP09422 covers ‘Museums, libraries, zoological gardens’.

‘According to the  ESSnet-Culture final report (2012), 'Books and press' is one of ten domains covered by the European framework for cultural statistics. It includes activities consisting in creating, editing, publishing and distributing books, periodicals, magazines and newspapers (whether printed or digital), as well as all aspects of cultural participation related to these goods. 

Several data on this domain are publicly available in Eurostat databases.