Some six million people are employed in the cultural sector in the European Union, official data issued yesterday shows. They make up almost three per cent of those employed.

According to the data, five in every 1,000 have jobs related to cultural activities, the statistics office of the EU, Eurostat said.

Of the almost two million artists and writers in the EU, nearly half (49 per cent) were self-employed, Eurostat said, a share that is much higher than that reported for total employment (15 per cent).

At member state level, the highest shares of cultural employment were observed in Luxembourg (5.2 per cent) and Sweden (4.1 per cent), followed by Finland and the Netherlands (3.9 per cent each) and Denmark (3.8 per cent).

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest share was observed in Romania (1.1 per cent), followed by Slovakia (2.0 per cent), Bulgaria (2.1 per cent), Portugal (2.2 per cent), Greece (2.3 per cent) and Cyprus (2.4 per cent).

The share of women in cultural employment was generally higher than in total employment, the data showed.

Of the almost two million artists and writers in the EU, nearly half are self-employed, a share that is much higher than that reported for total employment

On average, in the EU, women represented just below half (47 per cent) of those employed in the cultural field, just above the share of women in total employment.

According to the data, in most member states the share of women in cultural employment was higher than the share of women in total employment, in particular in the Baltic member states Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, followed by Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia and Romania.

In seven of the member states, there was a lower share of women in cultural employment than in total employment. This was true in Austria, the UK, Cyprus, Malta, France, Spain and the Netherlands. According to the data, the number of persons with tertiary education was significantly higher in cultural employment than in total employment.

The percentage point difference was highest for Spain, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland and Germany and lowest for Malta, Sweden, Ireland and Denmark.

At European Union level, 60 per cent of those in cultural employment had tertiary education, a share which is almost double that for total employment, Eurostat reported.