EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing

Germany had the highest persons employed in manufacturing of 27 EU countries in 2019, at 8.24 million. Malta had the lowest, at 23,373. The median was 520,711 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 30.16 million. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Highest8,236,201Germany

Lowest23,373Malta

Median520,71127 EU countries

European Union (27)30,158,203History

Map of EU countries, 2019

Under 220K
220K to 350K
350K to 680K
680K to 1.3M
1.3M and over

persons, 2019. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All EU countries, 2019

persons. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	EU countries	2019 persons	Change on 2018
1	Germany	8,236,201	+1.4%
2	Italy	3,808,549	+0.7%
3	France	3,135,562	+0.6%
4	Poland	2,903,418	+1.1%
5	Spain	2,064,593	+2.2%
6	Czechia	1,317,420	-0.8%
7	Romania	1,201,878	-2.9%
8	Hungary	792,987	-0.1%
9	Portugal	745,511	+1.4%
10	Netherlands	735,755	+2.8%
11	Austria	692,799	+1.9%
12	Sweden	653,703	+1.4%
13	Bulgaria	540,890	-2.7%
14	Belgium	520,711	+3.3%
15	Slovakia	512,613	-0.4%
16	Greece	352,444	-1.9%
17	Finland	344,325	+1.8%
18	Denmark	316,365	-1.5%
19	Croatia Series break	278,576	+3.9%
20	Ireland	239,199	+5.2%
21	Lithuania	221,681	+1.1%
22	Slovenia	220,319	+3%
23	Latvia	118,038	-2.1%
24	Estonia	110,886	+0.6%
25	Cyprus	35,524	+3.9%
26	Luxembourg	34,866	+0.9%
27	Malta	23,373	+0.7%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of persons who work in enterprises of manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C): employees plus working proprietors, partners working regularly in the enterprise and unpaid family workers. A head count, not full-time equivalents. Eurostat structural business statistics.

Eurostat structural business statistics. From 2021 the series come from sbs_ovw_act under Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics; 2005 to 2020 come from the earlier table sbs_na_sca_r2. Values for 2021 are flagged as a break: value added moved from factor cost to basic prices and some activities changed coverage, so the change from 2020 to 2021 is not all real. Amounts are published in euros for every country, including those outside the euro area. Not the same as active_companies (INE business register, Spain) or employer_firms (US Census Bureau).

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the EU countries are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

Eurostat. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

Eurostat, European Commission. (2024). Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2) (EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table

MLA 9

Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2), EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019. Eurostat, European Commission, 1 Mar. 2024, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2024. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2024) Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2), EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_persons_2019,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs\_na\_sca\_r2): EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019}},
  year = {2024},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs\_na\_sca\_r2). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs\_na\_sca\_r2/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Eurostat, European Commission
TI  - Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2): EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/03/01
PB  - Eurostat, European Commission
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2019" width="760" height="500" title="EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2019, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"sbs_persons_employed_manufacturing","level":"country","within":"European Union (27)","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=sbs_persons_employed_manufacturing&level=country&within=European%20Union%20(27)&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which EU country has the highest persons employed in manufacturing?

Germany, with 8.24 million in 2019, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest persons employed in manufacturing?

Malta, with 23,373 in 2019.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Eurostat, European Commission, Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). Retrieved 2026-10-12.