Working from home in the EU 

europe employment

The percentage of employed persons aged 15 to 64 in the European Union (EU) who usually work from home stood at 5.0% in 2017. This figure was highest in the Netherlands (13.7%), followed by Luxembourg (12.7%) and Finland (12.3%), and lowest in Bulgaria (0.3%) and Romania (0.4%). Working from home was slightly more common in the euro area (5.7% of employed persons) than in the EU as a whole.

The percentage of employed persons in the EU who sometimes work from home has increased steadily over the years, from 7.7% in 2008 to 9.6% in 2017, although the figure in 2017 was down slightly from 2016 (9.8%).

In the EU, more self-employed persons usually worked from home (18.1%) than employees (2.8%). This was true in all Member States.

More women than men work from home in most Member States

In 2017, a slightly higher proportion of women in the EU usually worked from home (5.3%) than men (4.7%). However, in a few Member States, the situation was the reverse, with more men usually working from home than women. This was noticeably the case in the Netherlands (14.7% of men, compared to 12.6% of women) and Denmark (9.5% compared to 7.6%).

Working from home becomes more common with age

The frequency of working from home increases with age. Only 1.6% of 15- 24 year-olds in the EU usually worked from home in 2017, rising to 4.7% of 25-49 year-olds and 6.4% of 50-64 year-olds. The highest proportion of 15-24 year-olds who regularly worked from home was recorded in Luxembourg (10.4%), way ahead of the next-closest Member State, the Netherlands (4.2%).

For the other age categories, the Netherlands came out top (14.8% of 25-49 year-olds and 16.6% of 50-64 year-olds), followed by Finland (13.1% of 25-49 year-olds and 13.6% of 50-64 year-olds).

work from home

Source: eurostat – Working from home in the EU

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