EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024

Germany had the highest persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles of 27 EU countries in 2024, at 6.4 million. Malta had the lowest, at 44,291. The median was 610,953 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 30.04 million. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Highest6,396,683Germany

Lowest44,291Malta

Median610,95327 EU countries

European Union (27)30,039,891History

All EU countries, 2024

persons. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	EU countries	2024 persons	Change on 2023
1	Germany	6,396,683	+1.9%
2	France	3,784,751	+0.8%
3	Italy	3,435,660	-0.6%
4	Spain	3,230,614	+2.9%
5	Poland	2,398,137	-0%
6	Netherlands	1,634,706	+0.7%
7	Romania	997,127	-1.1%
8	Portugal	860,345	+2.2%
9	Greece	853,434	+1.7%
10	Czechia	731,951	-1.3%
11	Austria	714,002	-0.8%
12	Sweden	660,918	-2.5%
13	Belgium	634,313	-0.2%
14	Hungary	610,953	+0.8%
15	Bulgaria	521,301	+1.6%
16	Denmark	487,093	-0.2%
17	Ireland	425,461	+1.4%
18	Slovakia	325,275	-1.1%
19	Finland	280,162	-1.2%
20	Croatia	261,825	+2.5%
21	Lithuania	247,206	-0%
22	Latvia	146,103	+3.7%
23	Slovenia	124,568	+0.1%
24	Estonia	99,879	-2.5%
25	Cyprus	78,268	+1%
26	Luxembourg	54,865	-0.5%
27	Malta	44,291	+5%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of persons who work in enterprises of wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G): 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, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), 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, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act) (EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table

MLA 9

Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024. 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-trade/eu-countries. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2026. Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024. 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-trade/eu-countries.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2026) Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-trade/eu-countries (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_persons_2024,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs\_ovw\_act): EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024}},
  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-trade/eu-countries. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), 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, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act): EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024
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-trade/eu-countries
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-trade/eu-countries.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), 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-trade/eu-countries" width="760" height="500" title="EU countries by persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, 2024, 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 wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"sbs_persons_employed_trade","level":"country","within":"European Union (27)","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=sbs_persons_employed_trade&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 wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles?

Germany, with 6.4 million in 2024, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest persons employed in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles?

Malta, with 44,291 in 2024.

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, Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles (NACE Rev. 2 section G), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.