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.

<h2

Content

The Creative Industries Focus on reports expand on the Creative Industries Economic Estimates published in January 2016.

“Creative Industries: Focus on Employment” covers the number of jobs in the Creative Industries and the Creative Economy in 2015, and is broken down by a number of characteristics, including:

• region or devolved administration
• highest level of qualification
• gender
• ethnicity
• socio-economic classification

“Creative Industries: Focus on Exports of Services” covers the value of exports of services for the UK Creative Industries in 2014, broken down by Creative Industries grouping and export market.

The UK Statistics Authority

This release is published in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics (2009), as produced by the UK Statistics Authority. The Authority 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. The responsible statisticians for these releases are Penny Allen (0207 211 2380) and Becky Woods (0207 211 6134). For further details about the estimates, or to be added to a distribution list for future updates, please email Penny or Becky at evidence@culture.gov.uk.

Pre-release access

The document above contains a list of 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.

​This publication has been updated on 20 June 2016 and 4 July 2016 to correct data in the statistical release Creative Industries: Focus on Employment published on 9 June 2016.

Amendments on 20 June: The percentage of BAME within the UK Economy was incorrectly reported on page 21. This has now been corrected in the PDF document to 11.3 per cent. There are no changes to any other figures in this report or other documents on this page.

Amendments on 4 July: The 2011 total in Table 1 and Table 2 was incorrectly reported and should be 1,562,000. This has been corrected in the accompanying tables. The chart in Figure 8 was showing data for the Creative Economy rather than the Creative Industries. This has now been corrected.

Headline findings

All estimates in this release are presented in 2022 prices and in chained volume measures. Estimates are provisional and subject to planned revisions. The index of estimated monthly GVA shows the growth or decline of the Digital Sector and its subsectors relative to January 2019.

This current release contains new monthly figures for April 2024 to June 2024 and minor revisions for January 2024 to March 2024.

Estimates of monthly GVA (£ million) are used to determine percentage changes over the relevant time periods mentioned here.

• Estimated monthly GVA for the Digital Sector increased by 1.1% between March 2024 and June 2024, while the GVA of the UK is estimated to have increased by 0.4% over the same period.
• Based on these estimates, the Digital Sector accounted for 7.2% of total UK GVA in June 2024, down from 7.4% in June 2023.
• In our Economic Estimates: Digital Sector Monthly GVA (to March 2024) release we reported a 0.2% increase in Digital Sector GVA from December 2023 to March 2024. As part of planned revisions to the underlying data in this release, this change in Digital Sector GVA has been revised down to a 0.2% decrease from December 2023 to March 2024.
• These same revised figures estimate that monthly Digital Sector GVA decreased by 1.8% in the 12 months between March 2023 and March 2024 whilst, over the same period, the estimate for the total UK GVA increased by 0.9%.

Released

26 September 2024

About this release

This is a continuation of the Digital Economic Estimates: Monthly GVA series, previously produced by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Responsibility for Digital Sector policy now sits with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Monthly estimates

These estimates are Official Statistics, used to provide an estimate of the economic contribution of the Digital Sector, in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA), for the period January 2019 to June 2024. This current release contains new monthly figures for April 2024 to June 2024 and minor revisions for January 2024 to March 2024.

Estimates are presented in chained volume measures (i.e. have been adjusted for inflation), at 2022 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 the Digital Sector 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 sectors that are defined using more detailed industrial classes (due to the data sources only being available at broader industry levels)

Data sources and technical information

These findings are calculated based on published Office for National Statistics (ONS) data sources including the Index of Services and Index of Production.

These data sources are available for industrial ‘divisions’, whereas the Digital Sector is defined using more detailed industrial ‘classes’. This represents a significant limitation to this statistical series; the implications of which are discussed further in the technical report .