1/ This chart shows how often central government employees across several European countries work remotely, based on OECD survey data. The main takeaway is straightforward: remote work is no longer experimental. In many countries, it is already a normal part of how public-sector jobs are done.
2/ Belgium stands out immediately. Nearly nine in ten central government employees work remotely at least one day per week. That level of adoption suggests remote work is fully embedded into daily operations, not treated as a special arrangement or temporary policy.
3/ Latvia and Lithuania also show strong uptake, with clear majorities working remotely on a weekly basis. This reinforces an important point: high levels of remote work are not confined to a single country or administrative system. Multiple governments have successfully integrated it at scale.
4/ The EU-7 average provides broader context. About 43% of employees work remotely weekly, while another 20% do so occasionally. Taken together, this means most central government workers across these countries have at least some access to remote work. Hybrid models, rather than fully remote or fully on-site work, appear to be the norm.
5/ Countries such as Slovenia and Croatia illustrate this mixed approach well. Weekly remote work is lower than in Belgium or Latvia, but a sizable share of employees still work remotely on an occasional basis. This suggests flexibility rather than uniformity, remote work is adapted to institutional needs.
6/ Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic sit at the opposite end of the spectrum, with many employees reporting they never work remotely. Even so, the presence of any remote work at all indicates that the groundwork technological or policy-based, is beginning to exist.
7/ Overall, this data strengthens the case for remote and hybrid work as durable, long-term models. If remote work can function within large, highly structured public institutions, it is clearly viable well beyond the private sector.
Dataset
Data Sources
OECD (2025). Workforce Insights from Central Governments: Findings of the 2024 OECD/EU Survey of Public Servants.
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/workforce-insights-from-central-governments_2f9080b1-en.html