According to the methodology used by Eurostat, employed people with high skills are defined as people aged 25–64 who are employed in the following occupations: managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals.
In 2022, there were approximately 80 million highly-skilled people employed across the EU, accounting for 44.2% of the total number of people employed aged 25–64. Latvia fares slightly better, with 46% of employed people classed as highly skilled.
The distribution of highly-skilled employed people at regional level varied a lot. 106 out of the 241 reported regions were equal to or above the EU average.
In 2022, the highest regional shares of highly-skilled employment were recorded in Stockholm (Sweden, 73.6%), Utrecht (the Netherlands, 68.9%), Luxembourg (67.4%) and Prov. Brabant Wallon (Belgium, 65.8%).
In a comparison with its Baltic neighbors, Latvia trails Estonia (48%) slightly, and is ahead of most of Lithuania (40%) but lags Vilnius district (63%) which is treated as a separate region by the EU methodology, whereas Estonia and Latvia are each treated as single regions.
