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 Member States. Spain alone accounts for a quarter of the total employment, and the three Member States with the highest levels of employment – Spain, Greece and Italy – make up around 62%.

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 2020 Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet (STECF-20-06), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020, ISBN 978-92-76-27164-2, doi:10.2760/500525, JRC123089.
For aquaculture: Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), Economic Report of the EU Aquaculture Sector (STECF-20-12), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-36192-3, doi:10.2760/441510, JRC124931.
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.