In 2017, around 8.7 million people in the European Union (EU) were working in a cultural sector or occupation. This group of workers represents 3.8 % of the total number of people in employment.
In the individual EU Member States, the percentage of people employed in culture in 2017 varied from 1.6 % in Romania to 5.5 % in Estonia, with most lying between 3 % and 5 %.
The source data set is here.
The term 'cultural employment' relates to employment in economic activities such as:
- creative, arts and entertainment activities
- libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities
- publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing activities; printing
- programming and broadcasting activities; motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities
- specialised design activities.
Cultural employment also includes occupations such as writers, architects, musicians, journalists, actors, dancers, librarians, handicraft workers or graphic designers.
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article 'Culture statistics – cultural employment', including trends over time, results by sex, age, educational attainment and employment characteristics (self-employment, full-time work)
- Overview of culture statistics on the Eurostat website.
To contact us: estat-user-support@ec.europa.eu