YouTube survey of 20,617 EU creators: most say they get no public help

YouTube has published a report called "Creative Capital" built on a survey of more than 20,000 video creators across all 27 countries of the European Union, with coverage of the report appearing on October 13, 2026. The company says the people making videos on its platform added more than 8.4 billion euros to the EU's economy in 2025 and supported more than 220,000 full-time equivalent jobs, figures it attributes to research by Oxford Economics. The survey, run by the research firm Public First, found that most creators feel they get little help from governments with training, funding or recognition, and the report asks EU policymakers to treat online creators as a proper part of Europe's creative industries.

For a long time, making videos online was treated as a hobby or a side hustle. This report is part of a wider push to get governments to see it as real work, with the same kind of support that film-makers, musicians or small businesses can apply for. When a creator cannot get a grant, a training course or a bank loan because their job does not fit any official category, it becomes harder to grow from one person with a camera into a small studio with staff.

The report sets out five areas where it wants the EU to act: government recognition, industry representation, training and skills, help with making content, and what it calls open discovery. Its specific ideas include a separate code for digital creators in Eurostat's official list of economic activities (known as NACE), a "European Year of Creators", a pilot creator exchange under the Erasmus+ programme, EU-funded creator apprenticeships, opening the Creative Europe MEDIA programme to productions made for online platforms, and InvestEU guarantees for lenders who serve creator businesses whose income goes up and down from month to month.

Readers should keep in mind who is speaking. YouTube commissioned both the survey and the economic estimate, and it has a direct interest in the result. The final part of the report argues against "prominence" rules being discussed in Europe, which could require platforms to give priority placement to certain designated media organisations. YouTube points to the 83% figure to argue that creators depend on its recommendation system working as it does today. The numbers are useful as a picture of how creators describe their own situation, but they have not been independently checked.

The finding that most viewing of EU-made videos happens outside the EU also shows how global the creator economy has become. A channel based in one small country can build most of its audience abroad, which is the same route many young creators everywhere hope to take.

Short-term: The report gives creators and their associations a set of figures to bring to European lawmakers as they discuss platform rules, and it adds pressure in the debate over prominence rules for media content.

Long-term: If ideas such as an official classification for creators or creator apprenticeships are adopted, creators in Europe could find it easier to register businesses, get loans and qualify for public culture funding. Other regions could look at the same model.

Who is affected: Video creators and the small teams around them, especially young people trying to turn content into a career; EU policymakers working on platform and media rules; traditional broadcasters and publishers who would benefit from prominence rules; and viewers whose recommendations could change.

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