EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation

Germany had the highest persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation of 26 EU countries in 2015, at 230,494. Luxembourg had the lowest, at 1,248. The median was 22,710 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 1.3 million. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Highest230,494Germany

Lowest1,248Luxembourg

Median22,71026 EU countries

European Union (27)1,300,000History

Map of EU countries, 2015

Under 9,000
9,000 to 20K
20K to 30K
30K to 84K
84K and over
No data

persons, 2015. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All EU countries, 2015

persons. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	EU countries	2015 persons	Change on 2014
1	Germany	230,494	+1.4%
2	Italy	186,990	+2.2%
3	France Series break	164,909	-1.2%
4	Spain	156,942	+5.1%
5	Poland	131,509	+0.7%
6	Romania	84,256	-1.4%
7	Czechia	52,913	+0.1%
8	Hungary	46,786	+14.8%
9	Bulgaria	33,160	+1.5%
10	Netherlands	32,946	-1%
11	Portugal	29,881	-0.1%
12	Belgium	23,536	+4.1%
13	Croatia	23,367	+1.8%
14	Sweden	22,053	+6.1%
15	Slovakia	20,523	-3.3%
16	Austria	20,339	+0.1%
17	Greece	16,508	-5.8%
18	Lithuania	13,140	-0.8%
19	Denmark	12,881	+3.8%
20	Slovenia	9,857	-0.8%
21	Finland	8,828	-0.1%
22	Ireland	8,740	+8.9%
23	Latvia	7,523	-1.8%
24	Estonia	3,289	+4.1%
25	Cyprus	1,644	-0.5%
26	Luxembourg	1,248	-1.4%

Other periods

About this ranking

Number of persons who work in enterprises of water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E): 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. 1 EU countries with data in other periods have no value for 2015 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

Eurostat. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), 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), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2) (EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015) [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), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2), EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015. 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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2024. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015. 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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2024) Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2), EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_na_sca_r2/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_persons_2015,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs\_na\_sca\_r2): EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015}},
  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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), 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), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2): EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015
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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics (2005 to 2020), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), 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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2015" width="760" height="500" title="EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2015, 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 water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"sbs_persons_employed_water_waste","level":"country","within":"European Union (27)","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=sbs_persons_employed_water_waste&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 water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation?

Germany, with 230,494 in 2015, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation?

Luxembourg, with 1,248 in 2015.

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), Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_na_sca_r2). Retrieved 2026-10-12. 1 EU countries have no value for 2015 and are not ranked.