2025 was another record-setting year for EU tourism, with nearly 3.1 billion nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments across the EU. This reflects a 2.2 percent increase, or 66.4 million more nights than in 2024. 

On January 01, 2025, the median age of the EU’s population reached 44.9 years, Indicating that half of the people in the EU were older than 44.9 years, while the other half was younger. Across the EU, it ranged from 39.6 years in Ireland to 49.1 years in Italy.

In 2025, the estimated number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments in the EU reached 3.08 billion, exceeding the previous year by 61.5 million, or two percent.

In the second quarter of this year, guests spent 245.9 million nights in short-term rental accommodation in the EU, booked via Airbnb, Booking or Expedia.

For September this year, there were 653 072 commercial flights in the EU. This marked a 2.6 percent increase when compared with the flight count in September 2024. However, the number remained 1.8 percent lower than the flight count for the same month in 2019.

In 2024, 6.6 percent of employed people aged 20 to 64 in the EU worked long hours, defined as usually spending 49 hours or more weekly in their main job. This share of workers with long hours has decreased over time, down from 9.8 percent in 2014 and 8.4 percent in 2019.

In 2024, the expected average duration of working life for 15-year-olds and over in the EU was 37.2 years. However, the expected average duration of working life varied broadly among EU countries.  

In 2024, employment inequalities linked to disability, gender and origin were recorded in the EU. The gender employment gap in the EU was 10.0 percentage points (pp), with an employment rate   of 80.8% for men and 70.8 percent for women. The gap was 0.2 pp lower than in 2023 and 1.1 pp lower compared with 2014.

In 2024, in the EU, 52.9 percent of enterprises with 10 or more employees conducted meetings remotely via the internet. With a 2.9 percentage points (pp) increase from 2022, this indicates that the changes implemented in work models during the COVID-19 pandemic might be here to stay. 

In 2023, the number of vessels handling freight or embarking and disembarking passengers in the main EU ports was estimated to be 2.2 million, an increase of 1.5 percent from the 2022.