Overview of the British Creative Industries

Britain’s creative industries continue to grow, surpassing other sectors of the economy. In 2015, the contribution of creative industries to the British economy reached 87.4 billion pounds.

According to estimates by the British Ministry of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), the total value-added (GVA) of the creative industries this year has increased by 7% compared with the overall economic growth of 17.4%.

Since 2010, the GVA of the creative industries has increased by 34% compared with the average growth rate of the British economy of 4.3% over the same period.

In 2014, employment in the creative industries also increased by 5.5%, more than twice the average employment growth rate in the UK of 2.1%.

If you count the 1.8 million jobs created by non-creative organizations in specific creative industries, the creative economy in the UK has created a total of 2.8 million jobs.

The latest data shows that this successful record of job creation in the creative industry also coincides with the considerable export growth in 2014.

In 2014, the total value of British creative industry export services rose by 10.9% to 19.8 billion pounds.

Compared with the UK's overall economy, the total value of the service industry's comprehensive exports increased by only 2.3% during the same period.

At present, creative services account for 9% of all service exports in the UK, which is higher than the contribution rate of creative industries to the domestic economy (5.2%).  

Since 2009, the export of creative services has increased by nearly 49% compared with the average increase of 29.6% in the total value of exports of services in all industries in the UK.

In 2014, the fastest-growing creative export industry was publishing (up 62%), followed by film, television, radio and photography (up 17%).

Most (11.4 billion pounds) of creative services exports are for Europe. In creative industries such as advertising and marketing, service exports into Europe account for up to 70% of total exports.

In recent years, compared with other fields, the export of music, games, design, television and movies has achieved remarkable success. The "Create UK" strategy supported by the government and industry aims to further increase the number of creative export companies in the UK.

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