NI creative industries grow despite challenges

The economic contribution of Northern Ireland's creative industries has grown almost twice as fast from pre-COVID levels as the region's overall economy despite the challenges to some creative disciplines, according to official data.

Statistics published by the Northern Ireland Statistics Research Agency estimate Gross Value Added (GVA) at current prices of the creative industries increased by 27.4 per cent between 2022 and 2019, compared to the rise of 13.9 per cent across the region's economy as a whole, measured on the same basis.

Over the longer-term from 2012 to 2022, GVA has grown by approximately 74 per cent in the creative industries, compared to 18.5 per cent for the economic average.

Employment in the region's creative industries has risen by almost a third (32.5 per cent) since 2019 and by 59.1 per cent in the 10 years from 2013 to 2023. This compares with increases of, respectively, 3.6 per cent and 13 per cent for general Northern Ireland employment across the same two periods.

The number of business sites (defined as a locally held unit registered for tax purposes) within the region's creative industries grew by 8.8 per cent between 2019 and 2024 (4.7 per cent for the economy as a whole).

This overall growth for the creative industries in Northern Ireland was achieved in spite of evident challenges to some local creative businesses.

For example, from 2021 to 2022, GVA in advertising and marketing and architecture fell by 9.5 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.

In addition, although most areas of the creative industries saw a growth in local business sites, publishing and museums, galleries and libraries both reported a decrease in this measure between 2023 and 2024.

Within the creative industries subsectors, IT software and computer services provided the largest level of employment with 17,000 jobs in 2022.

IT software and computer services also had the largest number of business sites in NI in 2024 (1,420). The greatest increase in the number of business sites from 2023 to 2024 was in the Music, performing and visual arts subsector (up 11 per cent).

In total, GVA for Northern Ireland's creative industries was £1,601 million in 2022, representing 3.2 per cent of Northern Ireland’s total GVA. In 2023, employment in the creative industries accounted for 39,000 jobs, representing 4.4 per cent of total employment in Northern Ireland. There were also 3,695 creative business sites in Northern Ireland, 3.9 per cent of all business sites in Northern Ireland.

More on Northern Ireland statistics.

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