Information on data

Statistics on cultural employment show how many people work in the culture sector as employees or self-employed. 

Cultural employment, as described in the ESSnet-culture report 2012, includes anyone working in a culture-related economic activity, based on the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE revision 2), regardless of their occupation. 

It also includes all individuals with a culture-related occupation, based on the international standard classification of occupations (ISCO-08), regardless of economic activity.
 

Data on cultural employment come from the EU labour force survey (LFS). These data provide a comparable picture of cultural employment across EU countries and details on core social variables, such as sex, age, and educational attainment. They are also available by breakdown of key labour market characteristics, such as self-employment, full-time work, permanent jobs, and people with only a single job.

It should be noted that the estimation of cultural employment is obtained using a conservative approach which shall avoid the over-estimation of the number of people employed in this field. This is because it is difficult to determine the cultural part of some activities and occupations which are only to some extent related to the cultural domain. Those are then excluded from the estimations. 

Also, the lack of information on possible secondary cultural jobs does not allow for their inclusion in the cultural employment group. This is because only the primary job of the surveyed individuals is considered.
 

In 2016, the culture statistics working group revised the scope of cultural employment to bring it closer to the scope used by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) institute for statistics. As a consequence, the scope of cultural employment was extended by some additional NACE and ISCO codes. 

Beginning with reference year 2011, this revision is in effect for data in the database. The details about the old and revised scope can be consulted in the  metadata related to these statistics. 

Starting from the reference year 2021, Structural Business Statistics are compiled under EU regulation 2019/2152 and its implementing act, EU regulation 2020/1197. The data presented for the cultural sector aggregate cover 21 different economic activities (at different levels of NACE): the details about the cultural coverage can be consulted in the related metadata page.

Business Demography 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 discs
• R90 Creative, arts and entertainment activities 
• R91 libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural activities are collected on a voluntary basis. Therefore, data are missing for some countries.

Data on enterprises that are active in the cultural sectors come from the structural business statistics (SBS) and business demography (BD) domains. 

In addition to those economic indicators for cultural businesses, data from the production of manufactured goods (Prodcom) provide the volume in euro of sold production of cultural goods. 

SBS cover industry, construction, trade, and service enterprises classified according to the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE revision 2). This classification allows for a detailed sectoral breakdown of business activities, up to 4-digit level. SBS provide information on the number of enterprises and many other economic indicators, such as value added, turnover, and personnel costs, among others.

BD statistics include variables that describe the characteristics and demography of the business population. They also provide data on enterprises' births (meaning when they are set up) and deaths (meaning closures) as well as derived indicators such as business survival rates.

The coverage of SBS and BD data differs for the cultural sectors. 

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

The list of cultural goods in international trade was defined based on the criteria outlined in the  ESSnet-culture final report. These were applied to the list of products in the combined nomenclature (CN), which is the European classification for international trade purposes. The cultural goods identified at 8-digit are aggregated into groups to obtain a clearer view of the patterns of international trade in this field.

Data on external trade in cultural goods are extracted from the Eurostat Comext database, which provides trade statistics for the EU, EFTA, and potential EU members. 

In 2016, an update of the cultural scope was implemented by the expert group on culture statistics. For further details, please consult the metadata on international trade in cultural goods.

The following indicators are available for the 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
   

International trade in cultural services is 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.

ITS statistics provide data on the transactions between EU countries (intra-EU trade) and the transactions with non-member countries (extra-EU trade). At national level, the data include the transactions with both EU and non-EU countries.

Cultural services refer to the following service items of the  extended balance of payments services classification (EBOPS2010): 

• information services (SI3)
• architectural services (SJ311)
• audio-visual and related services (SK1)
• licenses to reproduce or distribute audio-visual and related products (SH4)
• heritage and recreational services (SK23)

The data on international trade in cultural services are derived from the balance of payments (BOP) domain. In particular, the international trade in services (ITS) statistics are used to monitor the commercial performance of different economies.

BOP provides information on the total value of credits (or exports) and debits (or imports) for each item and on the net or balance – meaning credits minus debits – of the transactions with each partner country.

The trade value of credit, debit, and balance is expressed in millions of euro.

Because of the limited availability or comparability of data on ‘licenses to reproduce or distribute audio-visual and related products’, the aggregate for cultural services is not computed.

These statistics give an overview of indicators relating to people's involvement in cultural activities, including those done via the internet.

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

• Cultural practices, such as reading books and newspapers, going to the cinema, theatres, or concerts, and visiting cultural sites. These come from the 2022 six-yearly rolling module on Quality of Life of the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC), from the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) ad hoc modules on social and cultural participation (2006 and 2015) and from the specific modules on social and cultural participation of the adult education survey (conducted in 2007 and 2011);
• use of ICT (internet) for cultural purposes, coming from the annual survey on ICT usage in households and by individuals;
• cultural activities in terms of time devoted to them during a day, coming from of the time use survey (2000 and 2010);
• data from city statistics perception surveys can be used to assess the satisfaction of cities' residents with the cultural facilities in their cities, for example with cinemas, concert halls, theatres, museums, and libraries. The data also report the capacity of cinemas (number of seats), cinema and museum attendance, and the number of theatres and public libraries.

In terms of private cultural expenditure, data and analysis focus on household expenditure on cultural goods and services. This component enables a clearer understanding of the private financing of culture, cultural participation, and to some extent, access to culture. 

2 types of data are available:

• household expenditure on cultural goods and services in purchasing power standards (PPS) and in relation to total household consumption. These statistics are compiled from the household budget survey, under the EU regulation 2019/1700, updated every 5 years, with the most recent data available for 2020.
• 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 classification of the functions of government (COFOG). Expenditure on culture cannot be completely isolated, but it is included in classification's 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 not elsewhere classified

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