According to a new Eurostat report, Luxembourg emerged as a notable player in the European Union’s financial and insurance activities sector in 2021, boasting the highest employment share with 12.1% of the country’s business economy workforce engaged in financial and insurance activities. Luxembourg also led in terms of value added, with 34% of the country’s business economy value generated by this sector.
In 2021, the EU’s financial and insurance activities sector employed 4.9 million people, accounting for 3.1% of all employed individuals in the EU. The sector encompassed 759,159 enterprises, representing 2.5% of all active enterprises in the EU’s business economy, and generated a net turnover of €2.3 trillion while also contributing €1 trillion in value added. Following the implementation of the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation, Eurostat has broadened the scope of its structural business statistics (SBS) to include detailed data on the financial and insurance activities sector for the first time.
Other countries with significant employment shares in this sector included Cyprus (5.7%) and Ireland (5.6%). On the lower end, Czechia (2.2%), Romania (2.1%), and Lithuania (1.8%) had the smallest shares of employment in financial and insurance activities. In terms of value added, the Netherlands (31.5%) and Sweden (18.9%) followed Luxembourg as top contributors.
