Creative Industries contribute £13m to the UK economy every hour

New government figures show the country’s successful creative industries contributed £111.7bn to the UK in 2018, equivalent to £306m every day.

This is up 7.4% on the previous year, meaning growth in the sector is more than five times larger than growth across the UK economy as a whole, which increased by 1.4%.

The sector was supported by large contributions from tech services and the film and television industries, which contributed £45.4bn and £20.8bn to the economy respectively. Another boost was delivered by the advertising and marketing industries, which account for a quarter of the total growth of the creative industries since 2017.

Minister for the Creative Industries, Nigel Adams, said: “The creative industries encompass the best and brightest of UK businesses and these figures paint a vibrant picture of creativity and talent in our country today. I would like to congratulate all those within the sector whose hard work and ingenuity means the industry is making a staggering contribution of nearly £13 million to the national economy every hour.”

As a whole, the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) Sectors (excluding Tourism) contributed £224.1bn to the UK in 2018, accounting for 11.7% of the economy.

Headline figures include:

• The Digital Sector contributed £149bn to the UK in 2018, accounting for 7.7% of the UK economy. This contribution is up 7.9% on the previous year, meaning growth in the sector is nearly six times larger than growth across the economy as a whole, which increased by 1.4%.
• The Cultural Sector contributed £32.3bn to the UK economy in 2018 – up 2.7% from the previous year. The sub-sector ‘Film, TV and Music’ made up three-fifths of this sector (£21.3bn).