About

These economic estimates are accredited official statistics providing an estimate of the contribution of DCMS Sectors to the UK economy, measured by the number of businesses.

Headline findings

In March 2024, there were 590,695 businesses in the included DCMS sectors (21.7% of all UK registered businesses), a slight increase of 1.0% from March 2023. In comparison, the number of UK businesses overall in March 2024 was similar to March 2023 (-0.1%).

Of the 590,695 businesses in the included DCMS sectors in March 2024:

• the vast majority (87.4%) fell into the micro (0 to 9) employment band, a slightly lower proportion than for UK registered businesses in general (89.1%).

• 72.4% of businesses had a turnover of less than £250,000, a higher proportion than for UK businesses in general (66.1%).

• 24.1% of business sites in the included DCMS sectors were located in London, a higher proportion compared to UK business sites overall (18.6%).

Content

These statistics cover the contributions of the following DCMS sectors to the UK economy;

• Creative Industries
• Cultural Sector
• Gambling
• Sport
• Tourism industries (constructed on a different basis to the tourism sector estimates in our other economic estimates releases)

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions. Estimates are not available for the civil society sector, because they are not identifiable in the data source used for this release.

Tourism industries estimates in this release are constructed on a different basis to the tourism sector estimates in our other economic estimates and will be larger as they take into account the entire industry rather than strictly tourism activity.

The release also includes estimates for the audio visual sector.

A definition for each sector is available in the published data tables. Further information on all these sectors is available in the associated technical report along with details of methods and data limitations.

Recent changes to this release

We have made a number of changes to DCMS sector economic estimates: business demographics in recent years:

• previous reports have included data on charities registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, Community Interest Companies (CICs) and the now-discontinued Public Service Mutuals which were defined as civil society organisations.
• previous releases have included estimates of the turnover produced by businesses in each employment band and the number of businesses by foreign-owned status, both of which are not available in this release due to the change in data source from the Annual Business Survey (ABS) to the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR).

Additional information about the change in data source from the ABS to the IDBR in 2022 can be found in the source data change summary note.

We welcome any views on these changes at evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

Released

These statistics were first published on 5 December 2024.

Office for Statistics Regulation

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in June 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/">Code of Practice for Statistics, and should be labelled accredited official statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing evidence@dcms.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Pre-release access

The accompanying pre-release access document lists ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this

Headline findings

Reported DCMS Sector GVA is estimated to have fallen by 0.4% from Quarter 2 (April to June) to Quarter 3 2022 (July to September) in real terms. By comparison, the whole UK economy fell by 0.2% from Quarter 2 to Quarter 3 2022.

GVA of reported DCMS Sectors in September 2022 was 6% above February 2020 levels, which was the most recent month not significantly affected by the pandemic. By comparison, GVA for the whole UK economy was 0.2% lower than in February 2020.

Released

16 November 2022

About this release

Monthly estimates

These Economic Estimates are Official Statistics used to provide an estimate of the economic contribution of DCMS Sectors in terms of gross value added (GVA), for the period January 2019 to September 2022. Provisional monthly GVA in 2019 and 2020 was first published in March 2021 as an ad hoc statistical release. This current release contains new figures for July to September 2022 and revised estimates for previous months, in line with the scheduled revisions that were made to the underlying ONS datasets in October 2022.

Estimates are in chained volume measures (i.e. have been adjusted for inflation), at 2019 prices, and are seasonally adjusted. These latest monthly estimates should only be used to illustrate general trends, not used as definitive figures.

You can use these estimates to:

• Look at relative indicative changes in GVA over time for DCMS sectors and subsectors

You should not use these estimates to:

• Quantify GVA for a specific month
• Measure absolute change in GVA over time
• Determine findings for DCMS sectors that are defined using more detailed industrial classes (due to the data sources only being available at broader industry levels)

“Summed monthly” Annual GVA

Estimates of annual GVA by DCMS Sectors, based on the monthly series, are included in this release for 2019 to 2021. These are calculated by summing the monthly estimates for the calendar year and were first published for 2019 and 2020 in DCMS Sector National Economic Estimates: 2011 - 2020.

Since August 2022, we have been publishing these estimates as part of the regular published series of GVA data, with data being revised in line with revisions to the underlying ONS datasets, as with the monthly GVA estimates. These estimates have been published, updating what was first published last year, in order to meet growing demand for annual figures for GVA beyond the 2019 estimates in our National Statistics GVA publication. The National Statistics GVA publication estimates remain the most robust for our sectors, however estimates for years after 2019 have been delayed owing to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Consequently, these “summed monthly” annual estimate figures for GVA can be used but should not be seen as definitive.

Data sources

The findings are calculated based on published ONS data sources including the Index of Services and Index of Production.

These data sources provide an estimate of the monthly change in GVA for all UK industries. However, the data is only available for broader industry groups, whereas DCMS sectors are defined at a more detailed industrial level. For example, GVA for ‘Cultural education’ is estimated based on the trend for all education. Sectors such as ‘Cultural education’ may have been affected differently by COVID-19 compared to education in general. These estimates are also based on the composition of the economy in 2019. Overall, this means the accuracy of monthly GVA for DCMS sectors is likely to be lower for months in 2020 and 2021.

The technical guidance contains further information about data sources, methodology, and the validation and accuracy of these estimates.

Revisions

Figures are provisional and subject to revision on a monthly basis when the ONS Index of Services and Index of Production are updated. Figures for the latest month will be highly uncertain.

An example of the impact of these revisions is highlighted in the following example; for the revisions applied in February 2022 the average change to DCMS sector monthly GVA was 0.6%, but there were larger differences for some sectors, in some months e.g. the value of the Sport sector in May 2021 was revised from £1.27 billion to £1.45 billion, a 13.8% difference.

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About

These economic estimates are National Statistics providing an estimate of the contribution of DCMS Sectors to the UK economy, measured by the number of businesses.

Headline findings

DCMS

In March 2023 there were 584,920 businesses in the included DCMS sectors, a decrease of 3,245 (0.6%) from March 2022. This is compared to a decrease of 1.5% in UK registered businesses overall.

In March 2023 the vast majority (87.3%) of businesses in included DCMS sectors fell into the micro (0 to 9) employment band, a slightly lower proportion than for UK registered businesses in general (89.1%).

In March 2023, 79.5% of included DCMS sector businesses had a turnover of less than £250,000, a higher proportion than for UK businesses in general (68.1%).

Digital sector

There were 200,600 businesses in the digital sector, a decrease of 9,090 (4.3%) from March 2022. This is compared to a decrease of 1.5% in UK registered businesses overall.

The vast majority (91.9%) of businesses in the digital sector fell into the micro (0 to 9) employment band, a slightly higher proportion than for UK registered businesses in general (89.1%).

In March 2023, 78.3% of digital sector businesses had a turnover of less than £250,000, a higher proportion than for UK businesses in general (68.1%).

Content

These statistics cover the contributions of the following DCMS sectors to the UK economy;

• creative industries
• cultural sector
• gambling
• sport
• tourism (defined in this release as the tourism industries)

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions. Estimates are not available for the civil society sector, because they are not identifiable in the data source used for this release.

These statistics also cover the contributions of the digital sector and telecoms to the UK economy. Users should note telecoms sits wholly within the digital sector.

The release also includes estimates for the audio visual sector, which is not a DCMS sector or digital sector but is “adjacent” to them and includes some industries also common to DCMS and digital sectors.

A definition for each sector is available in the published data tables.

Recent changes to this release

We have made a number of changes to DCMS and digital sector economic estimates: business demographics in recent years:

• previous reports have included data on charities registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, Community Interest Companies (CICs) and the now-discontinued Public Service Mutuals which were defined as civil society organisations
• previous releases have included estimates of the turnover produced by businesses in each employment band and the number of businesses by foreign-owned status, both of which are not available in this release due to the change in data source from the Annual Business Survey (ABS) to the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR)

Additional information about the change in data source from the ABS to the IDBR in 2022 can be found in the source data change summary note.

We welcome any views on these changes at evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

Released

These statistics were first published on 16 November 2023.

The UK Statistics Authority

DCMS economic estimates are https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/accredited-official-statistics/">accredited official statistics and published in accordance with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/">Code of Practice for Statistics, produced by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2019.

The UKSA has the overall object

About

The Economic Estimates in this release are a combination of National, Official, and experimental statistics used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS Sectors to the UK economy.

Content

These statistics cover the economic contribution of the following DCMS sectors to the UK economy:

• Creative Industries
• Cultural Sector
• Digital Sector
• Gambling
• Sport
• Telecoms

Tourism and Civil Society are included where possible.

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions and that the Telecoms sector sits wholly within the Digital sector.

The release also includes estimates for the Audio Visual sector and Computer Games sector for some measures.

A definition for each sector is available in the associated methodology note along with details of methods and data limitations.

Released

These statistics were first published on 23 December 2021

Feedback

DCMS aims to continuously improve the quality of estimates and better meet user needs. DCMS welcomes feedback on this release. Feedback should be sent to DCMS via email at evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

The UK Statistics Authority

This release is published in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics (2018) produced by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). The UKSA has the overall objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good. It monitors and reports on all official statistics, and promotes good practice in this area.

Pre-release access

The accompanying pre-release access document lists ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.

Contact

Responsible statistician: Rachel Moyce.

For any queries or feedback, contact <a href="mailto