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Oceans and fisheries

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.

Employment in the fisheries, aquaculture and processing sectors (measured in full-time equivalents)

Fisheries (2019) 
BE 207
BG 938
CZ  N/A
DK 984
DE 991
EE 326
IE 2 758
EL 16 109
ES 27 805
FR 7 533
HR 3 125
IT 17 124
CY 741
LV 262
LT 396
LU N/A
HU -
MT 564
NL  1 673
AT  N/A
PL 2 252
PT 7 408
RO 59
SI 56
SK N/A
FI 258
SE 729
UK 7 984
Aquaculture (2018)
BE 48
BG 1 023
CZ 901
DK 358
DE 1 254
EE 33
IE 1 099
EL 3 534
ES 6 528
FR  9 535
HR 1 730
IT 3 287
CY 406
LV 166
LT 220
LU N/A
HU 877
MT 283
NL 201
AT 186
PL 3 459
PT 921
RO 2 560
SI 22
SK 698
FI 348
SE 267
UK N/A
Processing (2017) 
BE 1 373
BG 1 490
CZ (*) 741
DK 3 153
DE 5 885
EE  (*) 1 348
IE 3 138
EL 2 130
ES 19 826
FR (*) 11 021
HR 1 672
IT 4 568
CY 14
LV 3 125
LT 3 744
LU N/A
HU  (*) 14
MT 72
NL  (*) 2 227
AT  (*) 117
PL 17 578
PT  (*) 7 415
RO 1 006
SI 130
SK 569
FI 760
SE 1 591
UK 19 118

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.