Almost 60% of people in the EU were aged 20 to 64 at the start of 2025, new regional population figures show.
A total of 58.3% of the EU population was of working age — defined as 20 to 64 — on 1 January 2025, Eurostat reported on Tuesday.
The share varied widely across the EU’s smaller regions, with 39 areas recording at least 63.0% of residents in the working-age bracket.
Most of these were in Germany, which accounted for 22 of the 39 regions.
More than two thirds of residents were of working age in the Danish capital region of Byen København (68.9%) and in three Spanish island regions — Eivissa y Formentera (68.9%), Fuerteventura (68.3%) and Lanzarote (67.3%).
Rural regions recorded lower shares
At the other end of the scale, 189 regions had working-age shares below 55.0%, with these areas mainly rural, Eurostat said.
It listed inland Portugal, large parts of rural France, most of eastern Germany, and rural territories in Bulgaria, Greece and Nordic EU countries among the places where lower shares were recorded.
In six regions, fewer than half of residents were aged 20 to 64: Bornholm in Denmark; Creuse and Lot in south-west France; Etelä-Savo in south-east Finland; Arr. Veurne in Belgium; and Mayotte, a French outermost region.
