How large is the creative economy?

The United Nations General Assembly established on their 74th session, 2021 as the as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development; which confirmed the rising role of creative economy on the global stage.¹

The creative economy, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is “an evolving concept based on creative assets potentially generating economic growth and development” , was one of the fastest growing sectors in every region of the world – North and South, East and West – before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.²

The creative economy has been considered as highly transformative because of its capacity on income generation, job creation and export earnings with spillover effects that stimulated innovation in other sectors.

It represents 3% of world economy GDP and around 30 million jobs worldwide, according to UNESCO’s data. Extrapolating from earlier trends suggests that the creative economy could grow 40% by 2030, adding more than 8 million additional jobs.

According to the report The future of creative economy by Deloitte (2021)

“The creative economy is a means of addressing important social and cultural needs. It can provide cultural representation by presenting a diverse range of human experiences. It can aid social cohesion, among the population at large or particular communities, by enabling the sharing of common narratives about the contemporary, historical or mythical world in which we live. The creative economy is the part of the economy that tells our stories and the creative works we leave behind as a society are likely to define how future generations understand us.

The creative economy is also valuable to the extent that its association with individual creativity implies that it often involves the creation of new knowledge, which will create wider benefits through spillovers to other sectors. Creative industries often create technical innovations, most notably in the IT sector. The creative industries also support the diffusion of knowledge, for example through publishing. The news media in particular, but other parts of the creative economy as well, can also support democratic accountability through sharing information about current events, investigating institutions, and challenging decision-making.”

The creative economy is large and growing. For analysing how it impacts on the different economies in the world the data of Colombia, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom has been selected.

• In Colombia, the cultural and creative industries contributed 3% to the gross domestic product in 2019, and it reached a record result of USD 238 million in terms of exports.
• In Germany, the cultural and creative industries contributed 3,1% to the gross domestic and represented 7% of total employment in the country in 2018.
• In Japan,the cultural and creative industries contributed between 6.5m and 9.3m and represented 10-14% of total employment in the country in 2018. 
• In México, the cultural and creative industries contributed 3,5% to the gross domestic product in 2019, and it reached a record result of USD 5.200 million in terms of exports.
• In Nigeria, the music industry was growing at an annual rate of 13.4%. The Nigerian film industry, known as “Nollywood”, employs about one million people and, with over 2,000 films produced per year, was ahead of Hollywood.
• In South Africa, the cultural and creative industries contributed 1,5% to the gross domestic product in 2018 and represented 7% of total employment in the country in 2018. 
• In South Korea, the cultural and creative industries contributed around 850,000 rising to over 1m in 2018, around 4% of total employment in the country.
• In Spain, the cultural and creative industries contributed 900,00m in 2018, around 5% of total employment in the country.
• In Turkey, the cultural and creative industries contributed 600,000m, around 2.5% of total employment in the country.
• In the UK, the cultural and creative industries contributed over 3.1m in 2018, 10% of total employment in the country.

1.UN resolution 74/198, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N19/359/41/PDF/N1935941.pdf?OpenElement.

2.United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2018), Creative Economy Outlook: Trends in international trade in Creative Industries and Country Profiles, Geneva and New York, United Nations, https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcted2018d3_en.pdf.