Positive trend in economic recovery of UK creative industries from pandemic

Provisional data shows a positive trend in the economic contribution of the UK creative industries in 2021, bouncing back from the fall in Gross Value Added during the first year of the pandemic.

Although data published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport is incomplete and therefore could be revised, the sum of the monthly totals of GVA of the creative industries sectors for the calendar year of 2021, is currently about £104bn, compared to about £95bn for the same measure in 2020. The comparable figure for 2019 was just over £107bn.

More accurate figures will be published later this year, but the overall trend appears to show a positive rebound from the worst of the pandemic. Some industries such as video games grew during the lockdowns and other restrictions to forms of mass in person entertainment introduced to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

Across all the reported DCMS sectors – a list which includes digital, culture, sport, telecoms, digital, and civil society sectors – GVA is estimated to have grown by 1.4 per cent from Quarter 3 (July to September) to Quarter 4 (October to December) in real terms. By comparison, the whole UK economy grew by 0.9 per cent from Quarter 3 to Quarter 4.

GVA of reported DCMS sectors in December 2021 was 1.9 per cent above February 2020 levels, the last month not significantly affected by the pandemic. By comparison, GVA for the whole UK economy was level with February 2020.

Further updates are expected from May.

DCMS Statistics

‍