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These Economic Estimates are used to provide an estimate of the contribution of DCMS sectors, and separately the digital sector, to the UK economy, measured by employment (number of filled jobs). These estimates are calculated based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS).

Content

DCMS Sectors

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

• civil society
• creative industries
• cultural sector
• gambling
• sport

Tourism is not included as the data is not yet available. The release also includes estimates for the audio visual sector and computer games sector.

Users should note that there is overlap between DCMS sector definitions. In particular, several cultural sector industries are simultaneously creative industries.

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

Headline findings:

Between April 2022 to March 2023, there were approximately 4.0 million filled jobs in the DCMS sectors (excluding tourism), an increase of 364,000 (10.1%) since the 2019 calendar year (pre-pandemic) and 86,000 (2.2%) since the previous equivalent 12 month period.

Since pre-pandemic (2019), driving the growth in included DCMS sector employment was the creative industries (17.0% increase). Over this period, employment also grew in the civil society sector (3.3% increase) and cultural sector (3.0% increase), however remained below 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels in the sports sector (3.0% decrease) and gambling sector (6.7% decrease).

Digital sector:

These statistics also cover the contributions of the following digital sectors to the UK economy

• digital sector
• Of which: telecoms

Users should note that the telecoms sector sits wholly within the digital sector.

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

Headline findings:

Between April 2022 and March 2023, there were approximately 1.9 million filled jobs in the digital sector, an increase of 347,000 (22.3%) since the 2019 calendar year (pre-pandemic) and 82,000 (4.5%) since the previous equivalent 12 month period.

Released

First published on 28 September 2023.

Pre-release access

A document is provided that 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.

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 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 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.

The responsible analyst for this release is George Ashford.

For further details about the estimates, or to be added to a distribution list for future updates, please email us at evidence@dcms.gov.uk.