CREATIVE INDUSTRIES WORTH ALMOST £10 MILLION AN HOUR TO ECONOMY

• UK’s Creative Industries grew by 8.9 per cent in 2014 – almost double UK economy as a whole
• UK’s Creative Industries generate nearly £9.6million per hour
• 2016 set to be another blockbuster year for UK’s music, film, video games, TV and publishing sectors

The creative industries contributed £84.1bn to the British economy in 2014 and grew almost twice as fast as the rest of UK PLC. These figures released by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport show a rise of £7bn on the year before. They also reveal the number of jobs in the industry grew by almost 9% between 2013 and 2014 – almost double the rest of the economy as a whole (4.6%).

The creative industries economic estimates, released on Tuesday, show that creative companies now account for just over 5% of the economy.

One of the areas of strongest growth was in film, TV, video, radio and photography, which rose almost 14%, second only to architecture and graphic products and fashion design. Advertising and marketing increased by almost 11% between 2013 and 2014 but publishing went up just 2.8%. The number of jobs in the creative industries – which includes both creative and support roles – increased by 5.5% in the same time period, to 1.8 million.

The creative industries economic estimates are official government statistics used to measure the direct economic contribution of those industries to the UK economy.

Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey said:

“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.”

A great time to be involved in creativity in the UK!