Data / Rankings / Persons employed in manufacturing / EU countries

EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing

Germany had the highest persons employed in manufacturing of 27 EU countries in 2021, at 7.98 million. Malta had the lowest, at 23,049. The median was 502,309 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 29.74 million. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Keep it in a collection in your library.
Highest7,981,170Germany
Lowest23,049Malta
Median502,30927 EU countries
European Union (27)29,736,337History

Map of EU countries, 2021

Austria: 703,724 personsBelgium: 502,309 personsBulgaria: 502,912 personsCyprus: 36,322 personsCzechia: 1,282,833 personsGermany: 7,981,170 personsDenmark: 320,928 personsEstonia: 111,609 personsSpain: 2,117,679 personsFinland: 319,538 personsFrance: 3,145,233 personsGreece: 365,428 personsCroatia: 270,764 personsHungary: 771,132 personsIreland: 245,561 personsItaly: 3,793,380 personsLithuania: 229,939 personsLuxembourg: 33,892 personsLatvia: 122,175 personsMalta: 23,049 personsNetherlands: 734,429 personsPoland: 2,895,382 personsPortugal: 728,066 personsRomania: 1,140,612 personsSweden: 650,165 personsSlovenia: 218,971 personsSlovakia: 489,135 persons
  • Under 220K
  • 220K to 340K
  • 340K to 680K
  • 680K to 1.3M
  • 1.3M and over
persons, 2021. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All EU countries, 2021

Germany: 7,981,170 personsGermany7,981,170Italy: 3,793,380 personsItaly3,793,380France: 3,145,233 personsFrance3,145,233Poland: 2,895,382 personsPoland2,895,382Spain: 2,117,679 personsSpain2,117,679Czechia: 1,282,833 personsCzechia1,282,833Romania: 1,140,612 personsRomania1,140,612Hungary: 771,132 personsHungary771,132Netherlands: 734,429 personsNetherlands734,429Portugal: 728,066 personsPortugal728,066Austria: 703,724 personsAustria703,724Sweden: 650,165 personsSweden650,165Bulgaria: 502,912 personsBulgaria502,912Belgium: 502,309 personsBelgium502,309Slovakia: 489,135 personsSlovakia489,135Greece: 365,428 personsGreece365,428Denmark: 320,928 personsDenmark320,928Finland: 319,538 personsFinland319,538Croatia: 270,764 personsCroatia270,764Ireland: 245,561 personsIreland245,561Lithuania: 229,939 personsLithuania229,939Slovenia: 218,971 personsSlovenia218,971Latvia: 122,175 personsLatvia122,175Estonia: 111,609 personsEstonia111,609Cyprus: 36,322 personsCyprus36,322Luxembourg: 33,892 personsLuxembourg33,892Malta: 23,049 personsMalta23,049Germany: 7,981,170 personsGermany7,981,170Italy: 3,793,380 personsItaly3,793,380France: 3,145,233 personsFrance3,145,233Poland: 2,895,382 personsPoland2,895,382Spain: 2,117,679 personsSpain2,117,679Czechia: 1,282,833 personsCzechia1,282,833Romania: 1,140,612 personsRomania1,140,612Hungary: 771,132 personsHungary771,132Netherlands: 734,429 personsNetherlands734,429Portugal: 728,066 personsPortugal728,066Austria: 703,724 personsAustria703,724Sweden: 650,165 personsSweden650,165Bulgaria: 502,912 personsBulgaria502,912Belgium: 502,309 personsBelgium502,309Slovakia: 489,135 personsSlovakia489,135Greece: 365,428 personsGreece365,428Denmark: 320,928 personsDenmark320,928Finland: 319,538 personsFinland319,538Croatia: 270,764 personsCroatia270,764Ireland: 245,561 personsIreland245,561Lithuania: 229,939 personsLithuania229,939Slovenia: 218,971 personsSlovenia218,971Latvia: 122,175 personsLatvia122,175Estonia: 111,609 personsEstonia111,609Cyprus: 36,322 personsCyprus36,322Luxembourg: 33,892 personsLuxembourg33,892Malta: 23,049 personsMalta23,049
persons. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankEU countries2021
persons		Change on 2020
1Germany Series break7,981,170+1.2%
2Italy Series break3,793,380+1.3%
3France Series break3,145,233-1.1%
4Poland Series break2,895,382+1.9%
5Spain Series break2,117,679+3.6%
6Czechia Series break1,282,833+0.5%
7Romania Series break1,140,612+1.1%
8Hungary Series break771,132+0.4%
9Netherlands Series break734,429+0.1%
10Portugal Series break728,066+1.4%
11Austria Series break703,724+2.5%
12Sweden Series break650,165+4.7%
13Bulgaria Series break502,912-0.3%
14Belgium Series break502,309-1.7%
15Slovakia Series break489,135-0.3%
16Greece Series break365,428+4.2%
17Denmark Series break320,928+1.8%
18Finland Series break319,538-6%
19Croatia Series break270,764-0.1%
20Ireland Series break245,561+4%
21Lithuania Series break229,939+4.3%
22Slovenia Series break218,971+1.9%
23Latvia Series break122,175+4.3%
24Estonia Series break111,609+3.8%
25Cyprus Series break36,322+3.6%
26Luxembourg Series break33,892-2.1%
27Malta Series break23,049-1.1%

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, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/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. (2026). Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act) (EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2021) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table

MLA 9

Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2021. Eurostat, European Commission, 30 Sept. 2026, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2021. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2026. Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2021. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2021.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2026) Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2021 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_persons_2021,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs\_ovw\_act): EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2021}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2021. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs\_ovw\_act). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs\_ovw\_act/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
AU  - Eurostat, European Commission
TI  - Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act): EU countries by persons employed in manufacturing, 2021
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - Eurostat, European Commission
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2021
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-manufacturing/eu-countries?period=2021.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/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.

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 7.98 million in 2021, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest persons employed in manufacturing?

Malta, with 23,049 in 2021.

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, Manufacturing (NACE Rev. 2 section C), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

EU countries: more rankings