Creative Accounting: £84bn in 2014

2016 is so far shaping up to be another major stats party, with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) recently revealing that the creative industries were worth over £84bn to the economy in 2014- generating almost £9.6m per hour.

The figures demonstrate sector is growing at an impressive rate, almost twice the rate of the wider UK economy.

Gross value added was up 8.9% year-on-year to £84.1bn in 2014, accounting for 5.2% of the UK economy.
The value of services exported by the creative industries was £17.9bn in 2014, 8.7% of total UK service exports and in the UK, they accounted for 1.8bn jobs, a 5.5% increase on 2013.

If only there was a political figure on tap to spout something about a great UK success story. Enter Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey, who commented: “The creative industries are one of the UK’s greatest success stories, with British musicians, artists, fashion brands and films immediately recognisable in nations across the globe. Growing at almost twice the rate of the wider economy and worth a staggering £84 billion a year, our Creative Industries are well and truly thriving and we are determined to ensure its continued growth and success”.

However, an annex to the report acknowledges that there are issues in how music is categorized and also challenges “related to capture of micro-businesses and the inaccurate classification of music businesses in the ONS Business Register“- UK Music are reportedly working with DCMS to attempt to address these issues.

Not to worry- let’s roll those stats out and shout them from the rooftops anyway. Commenting on the figures, UK Music CEO Jo Dipple listed a bunch of British artists and added: “British music has created more emotional and cultural value for the citizens of this country than can be measured. During his Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 speech in November the Chancellor recognised this and said one of the best investments we can make is in the arts”.