The EU’s cultural sector employed 8.9 million people in 2025, accounting for 4.3% of total employment.
Nearly half of people working in cultural jobs were aged 30 to 49 (48.5%), while women made up 49.6% of the workforce and men 50.4%, Eurostat announced on Friday.
Education levels in cultural employment were higher on average than across the workforce as a whole, with 61.9% of people employed in culture having tertiary education — meaning education at university level or equivalent.
In 17 of the EU’s 27 countries, cultural employment represented between 4% and 5% of overall employment.
Where cultural employment was highest and lowest
The highest shares of people employed in culture were recorded in the Netherlands (5.7%), Estonia (5.3%) and Malta (5.1%), Eurostat said.
The lowest shares were in Romania (1.8%), Slovakia (3.3%) and Ireland (3.4%).
Eurostat also said it had released a new edition of its Guide to Eurostat culture statistics, which sets out the methods used to compile EU-wide data on cultural employment and other culture-related indicators.
