Can culture be measured? Certainly the number of theaters, art galleries, cinemas, and readers are indicators, as well as the number of film records, and books produced and tickets or books sold. The European Union took a slightly different approach, looking at culture in terms of how many people are employed in the arts–that is, writers, journalists, sculptors, painters, composers, musicians, singers, choreographers, dancers, actors, directors, and other related jobs. The U.K. (6.8%), Ireland (6.6%), Finland (5.6%), and Cyprus (5.5%) led the EU27 (3.8%) as countries with the highest percentage of students studying the arts. And, for good measure, it also looked at cultural goods as imports and exports: again Cyprus ranked in the top five EU exporters of cultural goods (along with the U.K., Estonia, France, and Latvia) while Cyprus and Greece both ranked in the top five importers along with the U.K., Ireland, and Austria of cultural goods.

1,482,000  total number in EU27 employed in the arts (incl. journalism)
0.7  employment in the arts as percentage of employment in the EU27
328,000 number of Germans employed in the arts
0.8  employment in the arts as percentage of total German employment
196,000 number of British employed in the arts
0.7  employment in the arts as percentage of total British employment
180,000 number of French employed in the arts
0.7  employment in the arts as percentage of total French employment
102,000  number of Spaniards employed in the arts
0.5  employment in the arts as percentage of total Spanish employment
37,000 number of Turks employed in the arts
0.2  employment in the arts as percentage of total Turkish employment
23,000 number of Greeks employed in the arts
0.5  employment in the arts as percentage of total Greek employment
17,000 number of Irish employed in the arts
0.9  employment in the arts as percentage of total Irish employment

Source: European Commission: “European Cultural Values”.