Cultural and creative sectors (CCS) are a significant source of jobs and income. They are a driver of innovation and creative skills, within cultural sectors and beyond. They also have significant social impacts, from supporting health and well-being, to promoting social inclusion and local social capital. Through our policy reviews, data work, and capacity building, we help local and national governments to mainstream cultural and creative sectors as an integral part of wider policy agendas, such as employment, entrepreneurship, social cohesion.
Culture, creative industries and sports
Cultural and creative sectors are an often-overlooked driver of development. However, they generate economic wealth, create jobs, and spur innovation, as well as making places more attractive to live, work and invest in. Similarly, both professional and grassroots sport contributes to happier, healthier and more inclusive societies and can be used as a catalyst for development, for example through the hosting of major sporting events.
Key messages
Businesses in cultural and creative sectors (CCS) have diverse cost structures and business models, from not-for-profit and public institutions, to for-profit and mixed models. While CCS include large global players such as Netflix or Sony Records, 99% of CCS businesses small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and typically rely heavily on collaboration, networking and a freelance workforce. Moreover, many creative businesses are based on intangible assets, and typically have different innovation patterns to other types of business. Effectively designing policy to support CCS, therefore, requires a deep understanding of these dynamics. Our capacity building programme equips policymakers and practitioners with the tools to design forward-thinking policies that respond to the needs of the sector.
To inform policies and channel funding where it is most needed, national and subnational governments need more and better evidence on the economic and social impacts of culture. Robust data and evidence can raise awareness of the value of culture and creative sectors among policy makers, citizens, education and training providers, other firms in the value chain, and investors, both public and private. Through our data work and policy analysis, we seek to improve internationally comparable statistics and to build an evidence base on the scale, scope and impacts of CCS, as well as which policies can best support their growth.
The power of culture and sport to transform places is increasingly recognised by local policy makers. For example, in the OECD around 60% of government spending on culture and recreation comes from the sub-national level. Our work on museums and local development equips local governments, communities and museums with tools to maximise the economic and social impact of museums. Through our programme on cultural, sports and business events, we help support governments to use culture and sport as a catalyst for development, inclusive growth and the improved well-being of citizens. We do this through our Recommendation on Global Events and Local Development, through setting standards for measuring the economic, social and environmental impact of cultural, sport and business events, and through our global events knowledge exchange network.
Context
Cultural and creative sectors are broader than you might think
Cultural and creative sectors (CCS) is a term used to describe a range of activity which has its basis in creativity and can typically be exploited through intellectual property rights. CCS includes both market and non-market activities of the creative industries and cultural sectors.
While international definitions of CCS do exist (e.g. UNESCO, Eurostat, etc.), most countries use their own definition, tailored to their specific cultural and statistical context. Broadly speaking, the OECD considers CCS to include the following sectors: Advertising, Architecture; Book, Newspaper and Magazine Publishing; Dance; Design; Fashion; Film and Television; Libraries and Archives; Museums, Art Galleries and Heritage Sites; Music; Radio; Theatre; Video Games; and Visual Arts.
Cultural and creative employment includes both those working in cultural and creative sectors and those working in cultural and creative occupations in other sectors of the economy, for example a designer working in the automotive industry. In fact, around 40% of cultural and creative employment can be found outside of cultural and creative sectors.
Cultural and creative sectors are big business and a big source of jobs
Cultural and creative employment accounts for up to 1 in 20 jobs in some OECD countries, and up to 1 in 10 jobs in major cities. Cultural and creative sectors represent an average of 7% of all enterprises in OECD countries, and contributed over 2 % of the total business economy gross value added (GVA) across OECD countries in pre-pandemic years. Moreover, in the decade prior to the pandemic, growth in the number of CCS enterprises was higher than in the rest of the business economy (18% vs 12%) and growth in cultural and creative employment outpaced growth in overall employment in most OECD countries (13.4% vs 9.1%). While the sector was heavily hit by the pandemic, it has recovered quickly, with cultural and creative employment and business counts now higher than pre-pandemic levels in many countries.
Cultural and creative sectors are highly innovative and contribute to innovation across the economy
CCS are highly innovative, producing new products, services and content; developing new business models and ways of working; and developing and integrating technologies in novel ways. They also contribute to innovation in other sectors of the economy through the services they provide (such as design and advertising), and as a source of new ideas. As such, we can think of CCS businesses as providing outputs which are themselves innovative and also providing outputs which become inputs into the innovation activities of other businesses. In this way, CCS function as an important component of regional innovation systems and countries across the OECD are therefore increasingly focused on how they can leverage CCS to boost innovation and productivity in their countries, cities and regions.
Investment in cultural infrastructure is needed to support a thriving cultural and creative ecosystem
Cultural and creative spaces, such as museums, makers studios and music venues, add vibrancy to a place, contribute to city branding, and can help revitalise city centres and main streets. In turn, the availability of space is critical for creative workers and firms to earn a living and run their business, while poor access to cultural amenities can be a large barrier to cultural engagement, particularly for low-income groups. However, making space for culture is not easy. Several factors influence space supply and demand and the solutions to space shortages for the creative economy will be found at the intersection of interests of different stakeholders: governments, cultural and creative sectors, the property sector, philanthropy organisations and citizens.
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