More than a quarter of cultural enterprises in the EU are in the creative, arts and entertainment sector

Some 27.4% of cultural enterprises in the European Union fall under the creative, arts and entertainment activities sector, new data from Eurostat has found.

Publishing (14.9%) and architecture (14.6%) also account for a sizeable proportion of cultural enterprises, the data showed.

As of 2022, there were 2.03 million cultural enterprises in the European Union, representing 6.3% of all businesses within the business economy, encompassing industry, construction and market services.

These cultural enterprises generated some €199 billion in value, or 2.0% of the total value added in the business economy.

Netherlands leads the way

The highest concentration of cultural enterprises was in the Netherlands (11.0%) and Sweden (10.8%), followed by Slovenia and Lithuania (both 8.9%) and Austria (8.1%).

At the other end of the scale, cultural enterprises only accounted for less than 5% of all businesses in six different EU countries, Bulgaria (3.1%), Slovakia (3.1%), Poland (4.3%), Greece (4.7%), Denmark (4.8%) and Romania (4.8%).

Small and medium enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) played a dominant role, particularly in the creative, arts, and entertainment sectors, with 78% of people working in creative, arts and entertainment employed in micro enterprises, (with less than 10 people employed) and 11.6% in small enterprises (10 to 49 people).

Some 6.5% were employed in medium enterprises (50 to 249 people employed), while just 3.9% of these professionals were employed in large enterprises (250 or more people employed). Read more here.