Employment rate of non-EU citizens
- Eurostat dataset
- lfsa_ergan
- Reference period
- 2025
- Unit of measure
- % of population aged 20-64
Key estimates
- EU aggregate (2025): 65.0 % of population aged 20-64.
- Highest value: Slovakia at 86.9 % of population aged 20-64; lowest: Belgium at 51.6 % of population aged 20-64.
- Cross-country mean 69.4 % of population aged 20-64, standard deviation 9.42, coefficient of variation 13.6% across 30 reporting countries.
- Aggregate change 2014→2025: +17.0% on a constant panel of 27 countries.
How well does the European labour market absorb non-EU citizens? Eurostat dataset lfsa_ergan reports employment rate of non-EU citizens for 30 reporting countries, with 2025 as the most recent period carrying broad coverage. The European aggregate stands at 65.0 % of population aged 20-64. The employment gap between nationals and non-EU citizens is the most widely used single integration outcome.
The five highest values in 2025 are recorded by Slovakia (86.9), Poland (83.6), Czechia (81.7), Iceland (81.3), Lithuania (80.0), all expressed in % of population aged 20-64. At the opposite end of the distribution sit Belgium (51.6), Bulgaria (52.7), France (57.5), Finland (57.5), North Macedonia (58.5). The ratio between the highest and the lowest observation is 1.68, while the median country reports 67.2 % of population aged 20-64 against a mean of 69.4 % of population aged 20-64.
Dispersion is narrow: the standard deviation across countries is 9.42 % of population aged 20-64, giving a coefficient of variation of 13.6%. The mean sits above the median, which indicates that the distribution is pulled by the upper tail rather than being symmetric. Any European average quoted for this indicator therefore describes a synthetic country that few Member States resemble.
Between 2014 and 2025 the summed value across the 27 countries reporting in both periods moved by +17.0%. The largest relative increases are observed in Croatia (+95.8%), Serbia (+63.3%), Ireland (+37.9%); the largest decreases, or the smallest increases, in Hungary (-3.0%), Bulgaria (-2.9%), Iceland (+1.2%). Because the panel is held constant, this change is not an artefact of countries entering or leaving the sample.
Higher values are the policy-preferred direction for this indicator, so the countries listed at the bottom of the distribution mark the effective size of the European gap: closing it to the level of the fifth-ranked country would require the lowest performer to move by 28.4 % of population aged 20-64. The estimates above are reproducible: the dataset identifier, filter dimensions and reference period are stated in the methodological note, and the series can be re-downloaded from the Eurostat dissemination API at any time.
Methodological note
Source: Eurostat, dataset lfsa_ergan ('Employment rates by citizenship'), extracted from the Eurostat dissemination API (JSON-stat 2.0) on the dataset update of 2026-06-30. Filter dimensions: citizen=NEU27_2020_FOR; sex=T; age=Y20-64; unit=PC. Unit of measure: % of population aged 20-64. Reference period: 2025. Geographic perimeter: national reporting units with two-character geo codes (30 countries with a non-missing observation); European and euro-area aggregates are excluded from the cross-country statistics and reported separately. Descriptive statistics (mean, median, population standard deviation, coefficient of variation) are computed unweighted over reporting countries. Change over time is computed on a constant panel: only countries with a non-missing observation in both the base and the reference period enter the calculation, which removes composition effects but may differ from the officially published aggregate. No imputation, seasonal adjustment or re-scaling has been applied beyond what Eurostat performs at source. Flagged provisional and estimated observations are retained as published.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser.