About 16% of Romania’s active citizens were working on their own last year, according to the EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

At the EU level, Romania was exceeded only by Greece, Italy and Poland for the rate of self-employed people.

Self-employed persons are defined as people who carry out their activity in their own unit or individual business. The concept brings together several categories, such as independent entrepreneurs, freelancers or individual farmers.

About 30.6 million were working on their own in the EU last year. This represented 14% of the employed population. About a third of them were men and 55% of them were over 45. A third of them had bachelor degrees.

In Greece, people working on their own represented about a third of the active population. Romania ranked fourth in the EU, on the same position as The Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Most people working on their own were active in sales, car repairs, agriculture, forests and fishing, constructions, scientific or technical activities.

editor@romania-insider.com