Going Self-Employed in Europe: What the Numbers Show by Country and Trade

Self-employment is a major part of European working life, and the patterns vary sharply by country and by trade. Eurostat's 2017 Labour Force Survey (LFS) ad-hoc module on self-employment, covering EU-28 member states, provides detailed data on who goes self-employed, why, and what their day-to-day working conditions look like.

Why People Choose Self-Employment

The most common reason EU-wide was a suitable opportunity, cited by 22.7% of the self-employed. Continuing a family business came second at 15.8%, followed by it being the usual practice in the field (14.8%). Flexible working hours attracted 11.2%, and 10.8% went self-employed because they could not find a job as an employee. Only 1.9% cited a request by a former employer.

Country differences are marked. In Romania, 38.3% of the self-employed said they could find no employment - the highest rate for that reason in the survey. In Bulgaria, 42.1% cited a suitable opportunity, also the highest rate for that reason. Poland had the highest share of family-business continuers at 26.6%. In Czechia, Belgium and Slovakia, the "usual practice in the field" explanation was especially common: 28.2%, 27.6% and 25.8% respectively.

Which Trades Concentrate the Most Self-Employed

The 2017 LFS data distinguishes between independent self-employed persons (without employees) and those who are economically dependent - defined as self-employed without employees who have one dominant client and whose working hours that client controls.

For the independent group, agriculture, forestry and fishing was the largest sector (19.2%), followed by wholesale and retail trade (13.9%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (13.0%). The dependent group concentrated differently: construction was biggest at 16.8%, then human health and social work (11.1%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (9.8%).

By occupation, "professional" was the most common role across both groups - 29.0% of the dependent and 22.1% of the independent. Skilled agricultural and fishery workers made up 18.7% of the independent group and almost none of the dependent. Among the dependent self-employed, craft and related trades workers accounted for 14.9%, technicians and associate professionals for 14.2%, and service and sales workers for 13.8%.

Autonomy Over Time and Tasks

Across the EU-28, 84.2% of self-employed persons with at least one client controlled their own working hours in 2017. Latvia recorded the highest rate (94.2%), followed by Estonia (93.3%), Hungary (91.2%) and Poland (91.0%). The Netherlands was at the lower end (64.5%), with 31.3% of Dutch respondents saying their client decided their hours.

On task autonomy, 81.4% of self-employed EU-wide could influence both the content and order of their work. This figure rose to 84.9% among those with more than 9 clients, and fell to 71.0% for those with a single or dominant client - a pattern the data associates with reduced control over work content.

Having more than 9 clients was the norm: 61.2% of self-employed in the EU reported this. Spain (75.9%) and Belgium (74.1%) had the highest shares, while Latvia (44.3%) and Slovakia (48.6%) had the lowest. Working alone - without a co-owner or network - was reported by 60.9% of self-employed across the EU-28. Romania was the extreme case (90.3%), followed by Greece (83.7%), Cyprus (77.6%) and Malta (75.6%). Finland was the clear outlier, with only 19.1% of its self-employed working alone.

Common Difficulties

Only 28.3% of self-employed EU workers reported no difficulties in 2017. That figure was highest in Czechia (44.2%), the Netherlands (42.1%), the UK (40.8%), Sweden (39.9%) and Germany (39.5%). In Greece, just 7.7% reported no difficulties - the lowest share in the survey.

The main difficulties reported EU-wide were high administrative burden (13.1%), periods without customers or assignments (12.3%), delayed or non-payments (11.7%) and periods of financial hardship (8.8%). Belgium (27.6%) and Italy (25.8%) had the highest shares struggling with administrative load. Estonia stood out for financial hardship at 30.4%. In Lithuania (22.8%), Cyprus (22.6%), Latvia (22.1%), Italy (21.6%), Bulgaria (21.1%) and Portugal (21.1%), a significant share of the self-employed reported periods without customers or work.

Job Satisfaction Compared to Employees

Despite these challenges, the 2017 LFS data shows self-employment tends to correlate with higher job satisfaction than employee status. Among self-employed with employees, 53.3% reported being highly satisfied with their current job. For independent self-employed without employees the figure was 46.1%, compared to 42.1% for employees.

Romania had the lowest satisfaction rate: only 18.9% of self-employed there were highly satisfied. And 15.7% of self-employed EU-wide said they would prefer to be employees - a reminder that self-employment is not the right fit for everyone who ends up in it.

Source: Eurostat, 2017 Labour Force Survey ad-hoc module on self-employment (EU-28).