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Fishing plays a crucial role in employment and economic activity in several EU regions – in some European coastal communities the fishing sector accounts for as many as half the local jobs.

Employment in the fishing sector tends to be concentrated in a handful of countries. Spain alone accounts for a quarter of total employment, and the three countries with the highest levels of employment – Spain, Greece and Italy – make up around 65%.

Aquaculture employs roughly 75 000 people, including part-time and full-time jobs in both marine and freshwater aquaculture.

The processing industry consists of approximately 3 500 companies. The mainstay of EU production is canned products and ready meals consisting of fish, crustaceans and molluscs.

NB: Aquaculture figures include marine, shellfish and freshwater.
(*) Eurostat data as Member States did not submit data for the data call.
Sources:
For fisheries: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), The 2019 Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet (STECF-19-06), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-79-79390-5, doi:10.2760/56158), JRC112940.
For aquaculture: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), Economic Report of the EU Aquaculture Sector (STECF-18-19), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-79402-5, doi:10.2760/45076, JRC114801.
For processing: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), The EU Fish Processing Sector – Economic report (STECF-19-15), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-14666-7, doi:10.2760/30373, JRC119498.