Culture plays a significant role in the daily life of European citizens. With nearly 300 cultural sites out of almost 700 on the UNESCO list, the 27 Member States of the European Union possess a significant cultural heritage.
The importance of culture is shown by the fact that cultural employment1 accounted for almost five million people, 2.4% of total employment in the EU27 in 2005.
For the first time, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, has gathered the main available culture statistics comparable at a European level in a single publication - Cultural statistics.
The publication includes chapters on cultural employment, enterprises and external trade as well as cultural expenditure and participation. The following examples illustrate the great diversity of data covered in this publication.
Characteristics of cultural employment: In 2005, in the EU27, cultural employment was estimated at 4.9 million people and accounted for 2.4% of total employment, covering both employment in cultural occupations in the whole economy and any employment in cultural economic activities.
The proportion of cultural employment ranged from 1.1% in Romania, 1.4% in Portugal and 1.7% in Poland to 3.8% in the Netherlands, 3.5% in Sweden and 3.3% in Finland.
People working within the cultural field generally have a higher level of education than those employed in the economy as a whole. Nearly half of cultural workers in the EU27 in 2005 had completed the tertiary level of education, i.e. university studies or similar, compared to a quarter of the work force in general.
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