Cyprus employed around 4,400 people in the sport sector in 2025, according to Eurostat, with 1,400 workers aged 15 to 29 and 3,000 aged 30 to 64. No reliable estimate was published for those aged 65 and over, after Eurostat said the figure fell below its confidence threshold.
Sport Remains A Meaningful Employer Across The European Union
Across the European Union, the sport sector accounted for 1.7979 million jobs in 2025. Of these, 651,100 were held by people aged 15 to 29, 1.0719 million by those aged 30 to 64, and 74,800 by workers aged 65 and over.
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For Cyprus, the total represents a relatively small share of the EU-wide workforce, but the figures still point to a sector anchored largely by prime-age workers, who made up the bulk of those for whom an age breakdown was available.
France Leads The Bloc In Sports Employment
Among the countries included in Eurostat’s data, France recorded the largest sports workforce, with 340,300 people employed in the sector. Germany followed with 289,900, Spain with 267,300 and Italy with 209,300.
Other countries sat in a mid-range bracket. Denmark reported 40,300 sports workers, while Belgium had 34,400, Greece 30,700, the Czech Republic 28,200 and Ireland 25,600. At the lower end of the table, Bulgaria recorded 13,400, Croatia 9,200 and Estonia 5,200.
The Age Profile Varies Sharply By Country
The age breakdown reveals a workforce that looks markedly different from one country to the next. In France, 105,900 sports employees were aged 15 to 29, compared with 226,400 aged 30 to 64 and 8,000 aged 65 or over.
Germany had 105,500 workers aged 15 to 29, 157,100 aged 30 to 64 and 27,300 aged 65 or over. Spain recorded 118,900 younger workers, 145,800 in the core working-age group and 2,600 older employees. Italy’s figures stood at 57,600, 146,000 and 5,700 respectively.
Denmark stood out for its comparatively young sports workforce, with 20,400 employees aged 15 to 29, ahead of 17,900 aged 30 to 64 and 2,100 aged 65 or over.
By contrast, Greece, Ireland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria all had more workers in the 30 to 64 age bracket than in the younger category, with mid-career employees representing the largest share of their sports labour force. Croatia and Estonia showed a similar pattern, with 30-to-64-year-olds accounting for 6,800 of Croatia’s 9,200 sports workers and 3,400 of Estonia’s 5,200 total.
Education And Manufacturing Add To The Sector’s Economic Footprint
Eurostat also highlighted a pronounced gender imbalance among students studying sport in tertiary education. In 2024, there were only two female students for every five male students enrolled in sport-related tertiary programmes across the EU.
The report further underscored the scale of the bloc’s sporting goods manufacturing base. In 2024, the EU counted 5,380 manufacturers of sporting goods, with combined turnover of €8 billion.
Taken together, the data offer a broader view of sport’s economic footprint in Europe, spanning employment, education and industrial production. For Cyprus, the latest figures show a modest but established sports workforce, concentrated mainly in the 30 to 64 age group, while the estimate for workers aged 65 and over was excluded because Eurostat deemed it insufficiently reliable.
