National Statistics on the Creative Industries

A page collecting statistics from PEC’s research and other sources about the Creative Industries

In 2001 the Creative Industries were defined by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as those industries ‘which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property’ (UK Government 2021).

Currently DCMS uses a measurement that builds on this original definition but is based on the ‘creative intensity’ of an industry. A subsector (like Publishing or Architecture) is normally deemed creative when more than thirty percent of its workforce are doing what we call ‘creative occupations’ (e.g. they might be designers, producers or games developers). To be part of the Creative Industries, sectors also have to meet other threshold criteria (DCMS 2016).

The resulting definition of the Creative Industries comprises the following nine subsectors:

Advertising and marketing
Architecture
Crafts
Design and designer fashion
Film, TV, video, radio and photography
IT, software and computer services
Publishing
Museums, Galleries and Libraries
Music, performing and visual arts

The Creative Industries subsectors are defined by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes and partially overlap with the DCMS definitions of the cultural sector, the digital sector and the tourism sector (UK Government 2021).

Not all creative occupations are in the Creative Industries. For example, a marketing professional (a creative occupation) might work in the financial services (not part of the Creative Industries). It is sometimes more useful, therefore, to talk about the ‘Creative Economy’ which comprises the whole Creative Industries workforce (creative and non creative occupations), as well as those working in creative occupations in other sectors.

It is important to note that the Scottish Government, while building on the UK wide approach to defining the Creative Industries, takes a slightly different approach – detailed here.

Headline Statistics about the Creative Industries

The creative industries contributed £119.6bn in GVA in 2023, accounting for 5.2% of UK GVA. (DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates Gross Value Added 2023 (provisional) – GOV.UK).The creative industries GVA increased more than the whole UK economy from 2010 to 2023 (34.5% vs 22.3%) but showed a decline for creative industries of 3.3% from 2022 to 2023 (DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates Gross Value Added 2023 (provisional) – GOV.UK).
In 2023 the creative industries accounted for 2.4 million jobs (Economic Estimates: Earnings 2023 and Employment October 2022 to September 2023 for the DCMS Sectors and Digital Sector – GOV.UK).
Self-employment accounts for 28% of creative industry employment in the UK as of 2022, compared with 14.31% for the economy more broadly (Economic Estimates: Earnings 2023 and Employment October 2022 to September 2023 for the DCMS Sectors and Digital Sector – GOV.UK).
In 2024 90% of creative companies were micro-businesses (fewer than 10 employees) which is aligned with the rest of the UK economy at 89%. (DCMS Economic Estimates: Business Demographics, 2024 – GOV.UK).
Around 362,000, or over one in eight UK businesses (13.2%) in 2024 are part of the creative industries (DCMS Economic Estimates: Business Demographics, 2024 – GOV.UK).
Of all creative businesses, 34% are located in London, 62% in London and the greater South East (London, South East and East of England), 13% in the North of England (North East, North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber), 10% in the Midlands (East and West Midlands), 2% in Wales, 5% in Scotland and 1% in Northern Ireland (ibid.).

Skills and Jobs

72% of the creative workforce are highly qualified, i.e. hold a degree/ higher level qualification (Level 4 or higher) or equivalent compared with 45% for the whole economy in 2019 (DCMS 2019).
83% of creative occupations are within ‘higher level occupations’, i.e. Managers, directors and senior officials; Professional occupations; and Associate professional and technical occupations, compared to 46% of the workforce across the UK (ibid.).
In the average city, each creative job adds at least 1.96 non-tradable jobs over a twenty-year period (Do Creative Industries generate multiplier effects? Evidence from UK cities 1997-2018, 2021).
Just over 29% of the creative workforce is freelance, compared to 15% across the UK (DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Employment July 2020 – June 2021).

Education

93% of 16-18 year olds say studying a creative subject impacts positively on their mental health and wellbeing. (Enhancing creative education, 2022)
Only 17% of the graduate population are creative graduates, but they represent 46% of graduates working in the Creative Industries (For love or money? Graduate motivations and the economic returns of creative higher education inside and outside the Creative Industries, 2020).
Creative graduates earn, on average, approximately £2,300 more a year when working in the Creative Industries compared with creative graduates working outside the Creative Industries (ibid.).
Non-creative graduates earn, on average, approximately £1,300 a year more when working in the Creative Industries compared with non-creative graduates working outside the Creative Industries (ibid.).

Geography

London represented 13.2% of creative industries employment in 2024, and 34% of businesses in 2019 and 12.2% of economic output (GVA) in 2022 (Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors, July 2023 to June 2024, DCMS 2021a, DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates: Regional GVA 2022).
London and the Greater South East (London, East and South East of England) represent 28.1% of creative industries employment in 2024, 62% of businesses in 2019 and 21.7% of economic output (GVA) in 2022 (Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors, July 2023 to June 2024, DCMS 2021a, DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates: Regional GVA 2022). In the last census, the area was home to 26% of the British population (ONS 2021).
North of England (North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber) represents 15% of Creative Industries employment as of 2024, 13% of businesses in 2019 and 9% of economic output (GVA) in 2022 ( Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors, July 2023 to June 2024, DCMS 2021a, DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates: Regional GVA 2022). According to most recent census information it is home to 23% of the British population (ONS 2021).
57% of UK createch companies are based in London (Createch activity in the UK 2021).
78% of AI and Data createch businesses based in the UK are located in London (Createch activity in the UK 2021).
In 2021, 709 creative microclusters existed in the UK (Creative Radar: Mapping the UK’s Creative Industries).

R&D and Innovation

Creative Research and Development (R&D) is crucial for innovation in the sector and makes up a larger proportion of the economy than might be expected, considering that R&D is typically associated with sectors like manufacturing or biotechnology. But both in the Creative Industries and other sectors, the UK under-invests in R&D compared to its peers, potentially restricting the development of improved products, services or processes and harming international competitiveness.
Based on the latest available measure of gross domestic product (GDP), which does not yet incorporate the new R&D methodology, total UK R&D expenditure represented 2.77% of GDP in 2022; this figure is not comparable with previously published estimates, which were last included in the 2019 release. The OECD average was 2.5% in the UK in 2019 (ONS 2021).
Specifically, business investment in R&D, which is spurred by public investment, was 1.97% of UK GDP in all economic sectors in 2022. This is higher than the OECD average business investment in R&D of 1.5% in 2019. Please note that the methodology for calculating this has changed and the numbers are not directly comparable. (Gross domestic expenditure on research and development, UK 2022.pdf, The Royal Society 2021).
Creative Industries R&D represented 11.5% of all business R&D in 2018, up from under 8% in 2009 (PEC 2022; ONS 2021). Even once IT, Software and Computer services (which make up a disproportionately large amount of the total creative R&D expenditure) are excluded from the totals, creative R&D still accounts for 4.3% of the whole economy’s Business Expenditure on Research and Development (BERD). (PEC 2022; ONS 2021).

International trade and exports

90% of the value of exports from the CIs is created domestically (12 facts about the UK’s international trade in creative goods and services).
While creative service exports are robust and growing – and represented 14% of all UK services exports in 2021 (the most recent year data is available) – the outlook for creative goods exports is stagnant and shows large drops in 2016 and 2020, with no sign of recovery in 2021, when creative goods fell to below 3% of total UK goods exports. (UK Trade in Global Creative Economy, Creative PEC, 2024)
In 2021 the UK exported £9.1 billion of creative goods and £45.6 billion of creative services. (UK Trade in Global Creative Economy, Creative PEC, 2024)
44% of the UK’s creative goods were exported to other European countries in 2021 while exports to North America and Asia are at 25% and 26% respectively for 2021. Europe’s share of the UK’s creative services exports is at 45% in 2021 and North America’s share of total creative industries was at 39% in 2021. (UK Trade in Global Creative Economy, Creative PEC, 2024)

Class, diversity and socio-economic inequality

The proportion of people working across arts, culture and heritage who are White is 90%; higher than the general workforce figure at 85% according to Labour Force Survey data from 2023. (Audiences and workforces in arts, culture and heritage report, Creative PEC, 2024)
In terms of class inequality, 60% of arts, culture and heritage workers grew up in a household where the main income earner was in a ‘managerial or professional’ role; the equivalent figure for the whole workforce is 43%. (Audiences and workforces in arts, culture and heritage report, Creative PEC, 2024)
In ‘Film, TV, video, radio and photography’ just 8.4% of people identify as being from a working-class background. (Audiences and workforces in arts, culture and heritage report, Creative PEC, 2024)
Women comprise only 34% of ‘managers and directors in the creative industries.’ (Audiences and workforces in arts, culture and heritage report, Creative PEC, 2024)
52% of the CIs workforces were from high socio-economic backgrounds, compared to 38% across all industries in 2020 (PEC 2021).
263,000 additional working-class people would need to be employed in the CI sector to make it as socio-economically diverse as the rest of the economy (PEC 2021).
Class-based inequalities are inextricably linked with gender, racial, disability and spatial disparities, and earlier research by the PEC has shown how these factors interact to compound disadvantage.
In London, the odds of working in the Creative Industries as white and privileged person are one in five – double the chance of those from ethnic minority, working-class backgrounds also living in the Capital (PEC 2021).
Just five percent of those from working-class origins based outside of London and the South East work in a creative occupation, compared to 15% of those from privileged backgrounds living in these regions (PEC 2021).
The intersection of class and skills has a particularly profound effect, where those who are degree educated and from a privileged background are 6.5 times more likely to secure a creative role than those from lower socio-economic backgrounds that are qualified only to GCSE-level or below (PEC 2021).