Eurostat reports on multinational enterprise groups in 2024

Eurostat data published on Wednesday reveals that multinational enterprise groups employed 18 percent of the workforce in Cyprus in 2024, placing the country among the lowest in the EU and EFTA alongside Greece at 14 percent and Iceland at 18 percent. Across the EU and EFTA regions, a total of 149,678 multinational enterprise groups were active. Of these, 96,201 were controlled by EU countries and 14,098 by EFTA members, while 39,379 were controlled by non-European nations. Germany leads with 15,342 groups, followed by the Netherlands with 13,805 and Switzerland with 10,824. Among non-EU/EFTA nations, the United Kingdom controls 14,118 groups, the United States 8,003, and China including Hong Kong 2,135. Total employment by multinational groups across these regions reached 51.6 million people, representing 30 percent of the business economy. Cyprus hosted 3,390 multinational groups, with some reports noting this as a slight recovery following previous years of decline. Leading countries in multinational employment include Luxembourg at 54 percent, the Czech Republic and Sweden at 44 percent, Switzerland at 43 percent, and Norway at 42 percent.