Data / Rankings / Persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation / EU countries

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 27 EU countries in 2022, at 308,242. Luxembourg had the lowest, at 1,571. The median was 23,533 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 1.59 million. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Keep it in a collection in your library.
Highest308,242Germany
Lowest1,571Luxembourg
Median23,53327 EU countries
European Union (27)1,586,249History

Map of EU countries, 2022

Austria: 23,533 personsBelgium: 26,441 personsBulgaria: 30,865 personsCyprus: 2,217 personsCzechia: 55,848 personsGermany: 308,242 personsDenmark: 13,101 personsEstonia: 3,887 personsSpain: 182,956 personsFinland: 12,355 personsFrance: 216,150 personsGreece: 16,350 personsCroatia: 30,990 personsHungary: 42,767 personsIreland: 10,844 personsItaly: 221,686 personsLithuania: 12,959 personsLuxembourg: 1,571 personsLatvia: 7,131 personsMalta: 1,830 personsNetherlands: 30,931 personsPoland: 154,953 personsPortugal: 38,745 personsRomania: 86,238 personsSweden: 23,215 personsSlovenia: 10,874 personsSlovakia: 19,570 persons
  • Under 11K
  • 11K to 18K
  • 18K to 31K
  • 31K to 80K
  • 80K and over
persons, 2022. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All EU countries, 2022

Germany: 308,242 personsGermany308,242Italy: 221,686 personsItaly221,686France: 216,150 personsFrance216,150Spain: 182,956 personsSpain182,956Poland: 154,953 personsPoland154,953Romania: 86,238 personsRomania86,238Czechia: 55,848 personsCzechia55,848Hungary: 42,767 personsHungary42,767Portugal: 38,745 personsPortugal38,745Croatia: 30,990 personsCroatia30,990Netherlands: 30,931 personsNetherlands30,931Bulgaria: 30,865 personsBulgaria30,865Belgium: 26,441 personsBelgium26,441Austria: 23,533 personsAustria23,533Sweden: 23,215 personsSweden23,215Slovakia: 19,570 personsSlovakia19,570Greece: 16,350 personsGreece16,350Denmark: 13,101 personsDenmark13,101Lithuania: 12,959 personsLithuania12,959Finland: 12,355 personsFinland12,355Slovenia: 10,874 personsSlovenia10,874Ireland: 10,844 personsIreland10,844Latvia: 7,131 personsLatvia7,131Estonia: 3,887 personsEstonia3,887Cyprus: 2,217 personsCyprus2,217Malta: 1,830 personsMalta1,830Luxembourg: 1,571 personsLuxembourg1,571Germany: 308,242 personsGermany308,242Italy: 221,686 personsItaly221,686France: 216,150 personsFrance216,150Spain: 182,956 personsSpain182,956Poland: 154,953 personsPoland154,953Romania: 86,238 personsRomania86,238Czechia: 55,848 personsCzechia55,848Hungary: 42,767 personsHungary42,767Portugal: 38,745 personsPortugal38,745Croatia: 30,990 personsCroatia30,990Netherlands: 30,931 personsNetherlands30,931Bulgaria: 30,865 personsBulgaria30,865Belgium: 26,441 personsBelgium26,441Austria: 23,533 personsAustria23,533Sweden: 23,215 personsSweden23,215Slovakia: 19,570 personsSlovakia19,570Greece: 16,350 personsGreece16,350Denmark: 13,101 personsDenmark13,101Lithuania: 12,959 personsLithuania12,959Finland: 12,355 personsFinland12,355Slovenia: 10,874 personsSlovenia10,874Ireland: 10,844 personsIreland10,844Latvia: 7,131 personsLatvia7,131Estonia: 3,887 personsEstonia3,887Cyprus: 2,217 personsCyprus2,217Malta: 1,830 personsMalta1,830Luxembourg: 1,571 personsLuxembourg1,571
persons. Source: Eurostat, Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankEU countries2022
persons		Change on 2021
1Germany308,242+6.1%
2Italy221,686+2.1%
3France216,150+2.2%
4Spain182,956+0.2%
5Poland154,953-0.1%
6Romania86,238-1.5%
7Czechia55,848-0.3%
8Hungary42,767-7.2%
9Portugal38,745+4.3%
10Croatia30,990-0%
11Netherlands30,931+1.5%
12Bulgaria30,865-0.4%
13Belgium26,441+3.6%
14Austria23,533+4.3%
15Sweden23,215-4%
16Slovakia19,570-10.7%
17Greece16,350+6.5%
18Denmark13,101+4%
19Lithuania12,959+3.1%
20Finland12,355+1.3%
21Slovenia10,874+1.6%
22Ireland10,844-1.1%
23Latvia7,131-0.9%
24Estonia3,887+0.2%
25Cyprus2,217+5.3%
26Malta1,830-1.2%
27Luxembourg1,571+4.4%

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. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), 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, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act) (EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2022) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table

MLA 9

Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2022. 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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2022. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2026. Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2022. 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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2022.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2026) Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act), EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2022 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sbs_ovw_act/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2022 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_persons_2022,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs\_ovw\_act): EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2022}},
  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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2022. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), 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, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act): EU countries by persons employed in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation, 2022
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-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2022
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/persons-employed-water-waste/eu-countries?period=2022.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Structural business statistics, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), 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 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 308,242 in 2022, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

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

Luxembourg, with 1,571 in 2022.

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, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation (NACE Rev. 2 section E), persons employed, number (sbs_ovw_act). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

EU countries: more rankings