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 furt

Headline findings

• Provisionally, the Digital Sector GVA decreased by an estimated 1.6% between 2022 and 2023, while accounting for inflation. Total UK GVA is estimated to have increased by 0.4% over the same period.
• Provisionally, inflation-adjusted estimated growth for the Digital Sector GVA between 2019 and 2023 was 13.7%.
• Revised, inflation-adjusted, estimated growth for the Digital Sector GVA between 2019 and 2022 was 15.6%. This is 6.5 percentage points higher than the 9.1% growth reported previously in provisional estimates. This update brings Digital Sector GVA figures more in line with National Accounts data.
• The Digital Sector is provisionally estimated to have accounted for 6.5% of total UK GVA in 2023 at £153.5 billion in current prices, decreasing from an estimated 6.8% of total UK GVA in 2022.
• From 2022 to 2023, notable changes to Digital subsector GVA include a 6.7% decrease in the largest Digital subsector ‘Computer programming, consultancy and related activities’ and an 8.6% increase in the second largest Digital subsector ‘Telecommunications’.

About this release

This Annual GVA series is our most accurate estimate of Digital Sector GVA. These Economic Estimates are Accredited Official Statistics used to provide an estimate of the contribution of the Digital Sector and its associated subsectors to the UK, measured by GVA (gross value added).

This is the first release of provisional annual estimates for 2023, and Blue Book 2024 inclusive revisions to 2019 to 2022 annual estimates. The provisional Annual GVA estimates for 2023 for the Digital Sector will be revised in our next release, upon updates to underlying ABS data, and further revised in the following statistical release to include Blue Book 2025 revisions. Our next release is planned to include a full analytical report providing additional analysis on our produced GVA estimates.

This release includes a methodology update to the deflators used to remove the effects of inflation in our chained volume measure estimates. A summary of the revisions to 2019 to 2022 estimates as part of this release can be found in the accompanying revisions report.

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

Data sources and technical information

Findings in this release are calculated based on the published Office for National Statistics (ONS) https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/supplyandusetables/datasets/supplyanduseofproductsandindustrygvaukexperimental" class="govuk-link">Supply and Use Tables, ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/datasets/ukgdpolowlevelaggregates" class="govuk-link">Gross Domestic Product (GDP) low-level aggregates and the ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/methodologies/annualbusinesssurveyabs" class="govuk-link">Annual Business Survey (ABS).

The Supply and Use Tables (SUT) report balanced GVA at the 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code level up to 2022. SUT <abbr title="Gross V

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.

Headline findings

• Employment in the Digital Sector decreased between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years (between April and the following March), compared to a small amount of employment growth in the UK overall over the same period. 

• Employment in the Digital Sector during the 2023/24 financial year was approximately 1.8 million filled jobs. This suggests that there has been a 3.4% reduction in employment in the Digital Sector (which includes the Telecommunications Sector) since the 2022/23 financial year (1.9 million filled jobs), reducing back to levels seen in the 2021/22 financial year (1.8 million filled jobs). By comparison, employment in the UK overall increased by 0.4% between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. 

• Employment in the Telecommunications Sector was unchanged between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, with approximately 179,000 filled jobs in the sector in both periods.   

• The Digital Sector accounted for a slightly lower proportion of the UK’s filled jobs during the 2023/24 financial year (5.4%) than in the prior 2022/23 financial year (5.6%). The Telecommunications Sector accounted for a similar proportion of the UK’s filled jobs in both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years (0.5%).  

• In the 2023/24 financial year, the ‘Computer programming, consultancy and related activities’ subsector contributed the majority of filled jobs in the Digital Sector (56.1%). In the 2023/24 financial year, the Telecommunications Sector contributed 9.8% of the filled jobs in the Digital Sector.  

• In the 2023/24 financial year, the proportions of filled jobs held by women (30.2%) and disabled people (14.2%) in the Digital Sector were smaller than the proportions of filled jobs held by these groups in the UK overall (48.0% and 17.4%, respectively).    

• In the 2023/24 financial year, the proportion of filled jobs held by individuals with degree level (or equivalent) education in the Digital Sector (63.5%) was larger than the proportion of filled jobs held by this group in the UK overall (43.6%).   

Released

12 September 2024

About this release

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

Employment estimates within this release are Accredited Official Statistics, used to provide an estimate of the number of filled jobs in the Digital

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