Beyond the creative industries: Mapping the creative economy in the United Kingdom

Author: Peter Higgs, Stuart Cunningham and Hasan Bakhshi

Institution: NESTA

Full reference: Higgs, P., Cunningham, S. & Bakhshi, H. (2008). Beyond the creative industries: Mapping the creative economy in the United Kingdom. NESTA.

Summary of key findings

The creative industries are one of the most important contributors to the UK economy. So it is important that we accurately measure their contribution to economic activity. Doing so can help both policymakers and industry professionals to communicate key concepts, share reliable data and make the case for greater investment.

There have been renewed attempts to estimate the true size of the creative economy. The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) both published studies in 2007. This report complements their work and seeks to improve on the available data about the true extent of creative activity within the economy.

We have been able to compare the effectiveness of the Creative Trident in both Australia and the UK, and this offers lessons on how the UK data could be improved. The DCMS and the Office for National Statistics should work together to provide better data and improve the usefulness of their datasets by, among other recommendations, increasing the sample size of the Labour Force Survey to improve its accuracy and to allow for more detail about occupations within industries.

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