EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying

Poland had the highest persons employed in mining and quarrying of 27 EU countries in 2023, at 147,303. Malta had the lowest, at 178. The median was 6,047 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 377,103. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Highest147,303Poland

Lowest178Malta

Median6,04727 EU countries

European Union (27)377,103History

Map of EU countries, 2023

Under 2,000
2,000 to 4,000
4,000 to 8,000
8,000 to 18K
18K and over

persons, 2023. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All EU countries, 2023

persons. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	EU countries	2023 persons	Change on 2022
1	Poland	147,303	+3.5%
2	Germany	36,596	-6%
3	Romania	27,146	+3.1%
4	Spain	19,002	+2.4%
5	Czechia	18,840	-0.6%
6	Bulgaria	18,781	-0.1%
7	Italy	15,989	-2.9%
8	France	15,401	+5.9%
9	Portugal	9,656	-1.8%
10	Sweden	8,544	+11.9%
11	Netherlands	8,287	+4.2%
12	Austria	7,477	+14.5%
13	Finland	6,566	-1.8%
14	Greece	6,047	+6.3%
15	Slovakia	4,646	-3.4%
16	Denmark	4,006	-0.8%
17	Hungary	3,685	+5.5%
18	Ireland	3,415	+4.4%
19	Latvia	3,389	-3.5%
20	Lithuania	2,426	-12.5%
21	Belgium	2,356	+0.7%
22	Slovenia	2,297	-0.7%
23	Estonia	2,260	+2.4%
24	Croatia	1,966	+7.6%
25	Cyprus	586	-3.1%
26	Luxembourg	258	-4.8%
27	Malta	178	+3.5%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of persons who work in enterprises of mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B): 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, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), 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, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act) (EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table

MLA 9

Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023. 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-mining/eu-countries?period=2023. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2026. Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023. 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-mining/eu-countries?period=2023.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2026) Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-mining/eu-countries?period=2023 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_persons_2023,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs\_ovw\_act): EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023}},
  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-mining/eu-countries?period=2023. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), 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, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act): EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023
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-mining/eu-countries?period=2023
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-mining/eu-countries?period=2023.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), 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.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/persons-employed-mining/eu-countries?period=2023" width="760" height="500" title="EU countries by persons employed in mining and quarrying, 2023, 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 mining and quarrying using official data, and cite the source.

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

Poland, with 147,303 in 2023, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest persons employed in mining and quarrying?

Malta, with 178 in 2023.

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, Mining and quarrying (NACE Rev. 2 section B), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.