In 2023, 1.55 million people were employed in the sports sector in the EU, representing 0.76% of total employment. Compared with 2022 (1.51 million), the number of people employed in the sports sector increased by 2.2%.
Among the EU countries, Sweden had the highest share of people working in the field of sports (1.33% of total employment), followed by Denmark (1.25%) and Spain (1.16%).
In contrast, the lowest shares of people employed in the sports sector were registered in Romania (0.28% of total employment), Bulgaria (0.37%) and Slovakia (0.40%).
Latvia might be described as being somewhere in the middle of the peloton with 0.55% – maybe not chalenging for a medal but certainly making the cut for the next round of competition.
Estonia (0.97%) is in the gold medal position among the Baltic states with Latvia second on the podium and Lithuania taking bronze (0.46%).
Across the EU as a whole, employment in the sports sector differs from total employment in terms of age composition. More than one-third (37.4%) of people employed in sport were aged 15 29, which is more than twice the share reported in overall employment (17.4%) for the same age group in 2023.
The majority of those employed in sport were aged 30-64, accounting for 59.1% of all sport workers, which was 20.6 percentage points (pp) less than the share of the same age group in the total employment (79.7%). People aged 65+ accounted for 3.5% in the sports sector and 3.0% in total employment.
More men were employed in the sports sector than women (55.2% and 44.8%, respectively), leading to a slightly larger gender employment gap of the population employed in this sector compared with overall employment (53.6% and 46.4%, respectively).
In terms of educational attainment level, sports workers exhibited characteristics similar to those in the total employment. Nearly half (45.9%) of those employed in sport had a medium level of education (International standard classification of education (ISCED), levels 3-4), 0.3 pp more than in total employment.
Those with higher (tertiary) education (ISCED levels 5-8) made up 39.6% of sport workers, which was 1.8 pp higher in sport than in total employment.
People with lower education (ISCED levels 0-2), accounted for 14.4% of employment in sport (2.1 pp lower than in total employment).
