Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022

Malta had the highest tourism share of employment of 42 countries in 2022, at 16.9%. South Korea had the lowest, at 1.5%. The median was 5.4%. Source: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Highest16.9Malta

Lowest1.5South Korea

Median5.442 countries

Map of countries, 2022

Under 3.3
3.3 to 4.1
4.1 to 5.3
5.3 to 6.8
6.8 to 8.4
8.4 and over
No data

%, 2022. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: OECD, OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All countries, 2022

%. Source: OECD, OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Countries	2022 (%)	Change on 2021
1	Malta	16.9	+1.3 pts
2	Iceland	14.9	+3.2 pts
3	Greece	13.9	+0.7 pts
4	Spain	12.9	+0.9 pts
5	Ireland	11.7	+3.4 pts
6	Portugal	10.3	0 pts
7	Japan	9	+0.2 pts
8	Hungary	8.9	+0.1 pts
9	Luxembourg Provisional	8.1	+0.3 pts
10	Belgium	7.4	n/a
11	Slovenia	7.3	+0.1 pts
12	Latvia	7.2	+0.1 pts
13	Mexico	7.1	+0.4 pts
14	Slovakia	7	+0.1 pts
15	Costa Rica	6.9	+0.7 pts
16	Chile	6.7	+0.6 pts
16	Serbia	6.7	+0.1 pts
18	Croatia	6.5	+0.6 pts
19	Saudi Arabia	6	+0.1 pts
20	New Zealand	5.6	+0.9 pts
21	Argentina	5.5	+0.5 pts
22	Romania	5.3	+0.1 pts
23	Netherlands	5.2	+0.6 pts
24	Finland	5	+0.4 pts
25	South Africa	4.7	+1.3 pts
26	Lithuania	4.5	-0.2 pts
27	Australia	4.3	+1.2 pts
28	Germany	4.2	+0.3 pts
29	Czechia	4.1	+0.1 pts
30	Brazil	4	+0.3 pts
30	Switzerland	4	+0.1 pts
32	Austria	3.9	+0.9 pts
33	United States	3.7	+0.3 pts
34	Denmark	3.3	+0.6 pts
34	Türkiye	3.3	+0.6 pts
36	Canada	3.2	+0.6 pts
36	Colombia	3.2	+1 pts
36	Estonia	3.2	-0.1 pts
36	Israel	3.2	+0.4 pts
40	United Kingdom	3	+2 pts
41	Sweden	2.5	+0.3 pts
42	South Korea	1.5	+0.7 pts

Other periods

About this ranking

Employment in tourism as a percentage of total employment, as each country reports it to the OECD: for most countries, people employed or jobs in the tourism industries (accommodation, food and beverage serving, passenger transport, travel agencies and others); for some, the employment that serves visitors directly.

The OECD labels the measure direct, but most countries count everyone working in the tourism industries, including work that serves residents, so the share is usually well above tourism_direct_gdp_share (Spain 2023: 13.2% against 6.0%). Definitions differ between countries and break within some (flagged: Colombia 2015, Denmark 2019, Japan 2014), so compare countries with care.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the countries are compared on one definition. 6 countries with data in other periods have no value for 2022 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

OECD. OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html

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

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2026). OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH) (Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU

MLA 9

OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH), Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 12 Oct. 2026, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2026. OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries.

Harvard

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2026) OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH), Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022 [Dataset]. Available at: https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{organisation_countries_by_tourism_share_2022,
  author = {{Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development}},
  title = {{OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD\_TOURISM\_KEY@DF\_KEY\_IND\_PC, EMP\_SH): Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries. Publisher attribution: OECD. OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD\_TOURISM\_KEY@DF\_KEY\_IND\_PC, EMP\_SH). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ\&df[id]=DSD\_TOURISM\_KEY\%40DF\_KEY\_IND\_PC\&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
TI  - OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH): Countries by tourism share of employment, 2022
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/12
PB  - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries.
N1  - Publisher attribution: OECD. OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html.
ER  -

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Questions

Which country has the highest tourism share of employment?

Malta, with 16.9% in 2022, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Which country has the lowest tourism share of employment?

South Korea, with 1.5% in 2022.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). Retrieved 2026-10-12. 6 countries have no value for 2022 and are not ranked.

Tourism share of employment: other rankings

EU countries