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Unit F1 – Social Indicators: methodology and development; Relations with users

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Statistics on employment in sport are derived from data collected by the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).

These statistics aim at investigating the contribution of sport employment to the overall employment and monitoring of a number of jobs in sport over time.

The EU-LFS is the main source of information about the situation and trends on the labour market in the European Union.

The methodology for the design and development of statistics on employment in sport is based on the one proposed by the final report of the European Statistical System Network on Culture (ESS-net Culture final report 2012) which takes into account two reference classifications:

• the NACE classification (‘Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes’) which classifies the economic activities; and
• the ISCO classification (‘International Standard Classification of Occupations’) which classifies occupations.

Results from the EU-LFS allow characterizing employment in sport by different variables such as gender, age, educational attainment by cross-tabulating ISCO and NACE selected sport codes.

Since 1 January 2021, the EU-LFS is based on Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), and its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240. For more detailed information, please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

The classifications used to produce statistics on sport employment are NACE Rev. 2 for economic activities, ISCO 08 (from 2011 onwards) for occupation, and ISCED 2011 for level of education (from 2014).

Sport employment statistics cover all economic sectors relevant for the sport sector.

The EU definition of sport which encompasses "all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels" delineates the reference field in measuring sport employment. The statistical translation of this definition - the 'Vilnius Definition of Sport' - proposed by the Expert Group on the Economic Dimension of Sport, identifies the core sport sector referred as 'statistical definition of sport' and sport-related economic activities (NACE) and their correlated products (CPA).

To measure the employment in sport, the central statistical definition was retained from the list proposed in the Vilnius definition as covering the essential sport activities coded under NACE Rev.2 class 93.1 Sport activities.
In addition, the dimension of occupation was introduced in the scope of sport employment. Such a methodology follows closely the one used to estimate cultural employment by considering simultaneously jobs in companies practicing an activity (NACE) in the sport domain and jobs which relate to any sport occupation (ISCO) regardless the NACE sector.

The proposed methodology creates a sport employment matrix, where the sport occupations are observed in conjunction with the list of sport economic activities.
Employment in sport may therefore be defined at the crossroad of NACE (activities) and ISCO (occupations) classifications. As shown in Figure 1 below, every employee working in a sport sector should be taken into account, whether his/her occupation is related to sport (cell I) or not (cell III). Similarly, any sport-related occupation should enter into sport employment statistics, related either to a sport activity (cell I) or not (cell II). As a consequence sport employment is measured by the sum I+II+III.

Figure 1: Sport jobs at the intersection of NACE and ISCO classifications

Persons.

The EU-LFS results cover the total population usually residing in Member States, except for persons living in collective or institutional households. While demographic data are gathered for all age groups, questions relating to labour market status are restricted to persons in the age group of 15 years or older. In the EFTA countries participating in LFS, i.e. Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, population data are not provided for the age-groups outside the scope of labour market questions.  

For more details on the methodology applicable from 2021 onwards, please consult: EU Labour Force Survey - new methodology from 2021 onwards - Statistics Explained (europa.eu). The methodology before 2021 can be found at: EU labour force survey - Methodology - Statistics Explained (europa.eu).

European Union, Euro area, EU Member States, EFTA Countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), Candidate Countries (Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). Data up to the third quarter of 2020 are also available for the United Kingdom. Data for Cyprus only refers to the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.

Since 2014, data for France also includes the French overseas departments Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion) and Mayotte from 2021.

Employment in sport statistics cover data from 2011 onwards.

Not applicable.

The EU-LFS is based on European legislation since 1973. Its implementation is governed by legislative acts of the Council and Parliament, as well as of the Commission. The principal legal act is the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), and its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240, which came into force on 1 January 2021.

These are main regulations with provisions on definitions, design, survey characteristics and data transmission and dissemination. For more details on the regulations, please consult: EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Main features and legal basis.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Statistical treatment of data derived from EU-LFS is performed with respect of the rules and procedures to guarantee the confidentiality set up for this survey.

For more information on publications guidelines, thresholds and microdata availability for researchers, please consult: EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Data and publications.

LFS annual results are released at the same time as the fourth quarter.

Sport employment statistics are released within three months after the annual EU-LFS indicators.

Not applicable.

In line with the EU legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see section 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

News articles related to employment in sport are usually published every year and they are available under the Publications section on the Sport online page. 

A leaflet on Sport statistics — 2018 as well as several Statistics Explained articles.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sport/database

EU-LFS anonymised microdata are available for research purposes. Please refer to access to microdata.

See: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

The European Statistical System Network on Culture — ESS-net Culture final report (2012).

The Vilnius definition of sport, which discerns three layers:

• sport in the statistical sense (it corresponds to NACE code 93.1 Sport activities);
• sport in the narrow sense (i.e. sport in the statistical sense plus the products which are necessary as inputs for (doing) sport); and
• sport in the broad sense (i.e. sport in the narrow sense plus all products that draw upon sport as an input).

The three levels correspond to three lists of specific product groups (CPA categories) and industries (NACE categories) which can be related to sport.

Please consult Quality reports and methodological publications.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Within the European Union (EU) there is a growing demand for sound and internationally comparable economic statistics on sport. During the past decades several attempts were made to set up sport satellite accounts (SSA) on national as well as European levels.

In order to address this situation, the European Commission set up an EU Working Group on Sport and Economics (EU WG) in 2006. The general assignment of this EU WG was to develop a common European approach for measuring the economic importance of sport. In the future these efforts may mature into a European satellite account for sport (European Commission, 2007). Since 2006 the first steps toward development of a harmonised framework for the SSA were made. One of the EU WG’s most important results so far is the agreement on the ‘Vilnius definition of sport’.

The need of evidence based policies, better comparable data and involvement of Eurostat in sport comes from repeated calls from the policy level (starting from the AT presidency in 2006). The Commission responded with the Erasmus+ programme which finances different activities and studies (including studies to improve the database, the development of Satellite Accounts in MS's, Eurobarometer surveys on sport), grants, seminar etc.

The development of sports statistics is continuously discussed with the European Commission policymakers and with the representatives of the countries.

In connection with sport employment, it may be considered that completeness also depends on the level of detail provided by the countries regarding ISCO and NACE classifications. Until 2020 countries were requested to provide 2 digits for NACE, and 3 digits for ISCO, with some of them going beyond, on a voluntary basis. For countries not providing data at 3 digits for NACE and 3 digits for ISCO, an estimation is provided (see Section 18.5 below and 'Codification detail level in EU-LFS for NACE and ISCO').

The overall accuracy of the EU-LFS data is considered as high. For more details, please see EU-LFS metadata and the latest Quality report of the European Union Labour Force Survey 2020 - 2022 edition.

As concerns statistics on employment in sport, the accuracy of data is impacted by the availability of data at 3-digits for NACE and 3-digits for ISCO. For the countries pvoviding NACE 2-digits, the estimations are made based on the data with NACE and ISCO at 3-digits available for other EU countries (see Annex 1). This estimation applies to data until 2020, as from 2021, with the introduction of the new Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), all the countries provide data at 3-digits for NACE.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Comparability across countries is considered as high and it is achieved in the EU-LFS through various regulations ensuring harmonisation of concepts, definitions and methodologies for all EU Member States, the United Kingdom, EFTA, Candidate Countries. For more information, please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

See also 12.3 above.

For sport employment, the comparability of data is influenced also by the availability of data at the most detailed NACE (3 digits) and ISCO (3 digits) levels. For countries which do not provide data at these detailed levels for the years before 2021, estimations are made. 

Breaks in series in data on sport employment occure in some countries for some reference years and are related to the following situations:

(a) the population figures used for the population adjustment are revised at intervals on the basis of new population censuses (however, it is common practice to disseminate basic recalculated series);

(b) the reference period may not remain the same for a given country due to the transition to a quarterly continuous survey;

(c) in order to improve the quality of results, some countries may change the content or order of their questionnaire;

(d) countries may modify their survey designs.

The list of breaks in series induced by the census revisions, transition to continuous quarterly survey, re-design of survey or change in the methodology imputed to data on sport is provided in Annex 2 - Inventory of breaks in series and revisions.

For more information on comparability please consult the EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Data and Publication >>> Comparability over time.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

The general Eurostat revision policy applies to this domain.

Employment in sport data are revised following the updates of the EU-LFS results.

All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.

Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.

Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability for certain countries. They are replaced with final data in connection with the publication of next reference period. All the revisions affecting the source data between the successive rounds of updates of cultural indicators (year t and year t+1) are taken into account in the round of updates t+1.

As concerns data revisions of the EU-LFS in general, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Data and publication.

European aggregates are updated for consistency with new country data.

New data are only used to update disseminated data if provided according to the provision schedule set by Eurostat, or in the case of reported errors.

The EU-LFS annual data are used as an input to compute sport employment statistics.

For more information, please consult the EU-LFS metadata.

Since early 2000's, the LFS survey has quarterly periodicity, previously it was an annual survey run in spring. Since the survey became quarterly, it includes both quarterly variables and annual variables (i.e. collected only once a year).

The statistics on sport employment are based on annual averages of quarterly data and are released once a year.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.

Data on employment in sport are also checked and validated for their internal and external consistency before publishing.

General overview

Employment in Sport is measured by the sum I+II+III in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Sport jobs at the intersection of NACE and ISCO classifications

Regarding NACE classification, the code 93.1 "Sport activities" is the only one that is included in the scope, reflecting the "Statistical definition" of the Vilnius definition of Sport. In addition, Sport employment cross-tabulation includes the ISCO code 342 (Sports and fitness workers) which reflects the very nature of the Vilnius statistical definition. This category encompasses the following sub-categories:
3421: Athletes and sports players
3422: Sports coaches, instructors and officials
3423: Fitness and recreation instructors and program leaders

Estimations
The NACE code retained for the scope of sport (93.1) requires a 3-digits codification. In EU-LFS, until 2020, some countries used to provide 2 digits NACE details. For these countries, data before 2021 related to the sport part of NACE 93 (i.e .the ratio 93.1/93) are estimated by applying the coefficient calculated based on the EU countries that provide 3 digits for NACE.

Please refer to EU-LFS metadata.