Don’t need culture? Romania ranks last in the EU in terms of percentage of people employed in culture

Romania ranks last by far among the 28 European Union member states in terms of percentage of people employed in culture, according to Eurostat.

In 2017, around 8.7 million people in the EU were working in a cultural sector or occupation. This group of workers represents 3.8 percent of the total number of people in employment.

“In the individual EU Member States, the percentage of people employed in culture in 2017 varied from 1.6 percent in Romania to 5.5 percent in Estonia, with most lying between 3 percent and 5 percent,” Eurostat said.

In terms of percentage of people employed in culture, Romania looks completely different compared with other European countries, as Bulgaria – the second-lowest in this rankings – has a share of 2.7 percent of people employed in culture.

The term ‘cultural employment’ relates to employment in economic activities such as creative, arts and entertainment activities, libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities, publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing activities, printing programming and broadcasting activities, motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities specialised design activities.

Cultural employment also includes occupations such as writers, architects, musicians, journalists, actors, dancers, librarians, handicraft workers or graphic designers.