According to the latest statistics by Eurostat, up to 4.3% of workers in Malta are employed in the arts and culture industries. This is higher than the EU average of 3.8% with a total of up to 7.9 million people in Europe working in the arts and culture industries. Culture employment in the EU grew by 1.9% in 2024 and the gender gap was the smallest ever recorded with 4 million men and 3.93 million women.
The countries with the highest employment rate in the arts and culture industries were the Netherlands with 5.3%, followed by Luxembourg with 5.1% and Estonia with 5%. Romania (10.4%), France (9.4%) and Hungary (9.0%) recorded the highest increases, while Sweden (-7.7%) and Finland (-7.1%) saw the most significant decreases. Malta’s employment rate in the culture and arts industries increased by an average of up to 8% from 2022 to 2024.
Up to one-third (31.7%) of cultural workers across the EU were self-employed (compared to an average of 13.6% in the whole economy). Self-employment accounted for nearly half of all cultural employment in Italy (47.1%) and the Netherlands (46.0%). More than three quarters (75.5%) of cultural workers in the EU were employed on a full-time basis.
In 2024 the EU registered almost 1.79 million artists and writers, constituting 22.6% of all cultural employment: among them, around 45.1% were self-employed. Journalists are also included in the statistic.
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