Approximately 1.55 million people were hired last year in the sport sector in the EU, representing 0.76% of the total of employed people, up by 2.2% as compared to the 1.51 million people who were employed in the sport sector in 2022, show the Eurostat sector. The sport sector includes occupations and economic activities such as those in teams and sporting clubs, coaches, independent athletes, fitness centres and activities such as promotion and management of sporting events. Among the member states of the EU, Sweden has the highest share of people employed in the sport sector (1.33% of the total number of employees), followed by Denmark (1.25%) and Spain (1.11%). In contrast, the lowest shares of employees in the sport sector were in Romania (0.28%) out of the total of employees), Bulgaria (0.37%) and Slovakia. (0.4%).But in the case of Romania, the share of employees in the sport sector increased from 0.16% out of the total of employees in 2021, up to 0.21% in 2022 and 0.28% in 2023.In absolute figures, the number of people employed in the sports sector in Romania has increased from 12,000 in 2021, to 16,000 in 2022 and 22,000 in 2023. In addition, Romania also has the highest year-on-year percentage increase in the number of people employed in sport in the EU, with a jump of 31.7% in 2023 compared to 2022. At EU level, the number of people employed in the sport sector increased by only 2.2% in 2023 compared to 2022. The gender breakdown shows that men outnumber women among people employed in sport in the EU (55.2% compared to 44.8%). By age group, more than a third (37.4%) of people employed in sport in the EU were aged between 15 and 29. But the 30-64 age group has the highest share of people employed in sport, accounting for 59.1% of all sport workers.