A person taking a photo of a painting in an art gallery.

In 2021, there was a total of 894 000 enterprises in the EU’s arts, entertainment and recreation sector, representing 2.9% of all enterprises active in the business economy. 

Following the entry into force of the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation, Eurostat has extended the service coverage for structural business statistics (SBS) and is publishing, for the first time, SBS data on the arts, entertainment and recreation sector.

In 2021, the arts, entertainment and recreation sector provided employment to 2.1 million people, representing 1.3% of all the people employed in the business economy. The sector contributed €86.5 billion in value added, accounting for 0.9% of value added created by the EU’s business economy.

The highest contribution of this sector to the value added to the business economy was recorded in Malta (16.9%), followed by Slovakia (3.7%) and Hungary (2.3%). The lowest contributions were recorded in Luxembourg (0.2%), Poland (0.4%) and Ireland (0.5%). 

Value added and employment in arts, entertainment and recreation in 2021, % share of arts, entertainment and recreation, NACE section R, in the business economy. Chart. See link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: sbs_ovw_act

In terms of employment, Malta recorded the highest share (5.3%), ahead of Denmark (2.6%) and Spain (2.3%). The lowest shares of employment in arts, entertainment and recreation sector in the business economy total were registered in Luxembourg (0.4%), Poland (0.5%) and Czechia (0.8%).

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Methodological notes

  • The sector ‘arts, entertainment and recreation’ includes enterprises falling under section R of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE).
  • NACE Section R ‘arts, entertainment and recreation’ contains Division R92 ‘gambling and betting activities’. The share of the value added of Division R92 in Section R varies strongly between EU countries. The EU average is estimated to around 38%, with the lowest value in the Netherlands (11%) and the highest in Malta (98%). In Malta, gambling and betting activities generated over 16% of the value added of the whole business economy, while in most EU countries (except Greece (1.0%), Hungary (1.9%) and Slovakia (3.6%)) this share was below 1%. This fact explains the exceptionally high share of the value added in NACE Section R in the total value added of Malta’s business economy, as it is presented in this news Item.

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